Majora: How It Really Happened
by Galaxy Girl
Summary: Three Hylian librarians follow Link to Termina to make him pay his overdue fines, and a runin with Skullkid turns them into a Deku Scrub, a Goron, and a Zora. LATEST CHAPTER: It's a bad idea to take a Zora into the mountains in the middle of winter.
1. A Figure In The Woods

Majora: How It REALLY Happened!  
By Galaxy Girl and Darmani  
  
Well, well... here we are again. This is just an idea right now, but if you like it I'll finish it. Thanks to Darmani for giving me the idea for this fic!  
  
  
There is a legend kept dear by the Royal Family of Hyrule... About a boy chosen by Destiny to save his world. About a boy who traveled through time to restore order and peace to the realm of Hyrule... And about a boy who traveled in search of the dear and beloved friend he had lost when he finally faced his destiny...  
  
WELL THIS STORY AIN'T ABOUT THAT KID!   
  
It's about us. Who are us, you ask? Well, Us are three people who we'll just call Kelli, Erik, and David. Us are three innocent citizens and librarians who were brought into this whole story by fate and some idiot who can't remember to turn in his library books on time. Some psychotic and deranged moron who cannot remember THREE NOTES kept us in it!  
  
What? The story? Oh yeah, the story. I guess you'll be wanting to hear that now.   
  
First, the characters:  
  
Kelli: originally from Kakariko Village. Receptionist at library. Wears knee-high white dress with green apron and green bandana in hair.  
  
Erik: originally from Kakariko Village. Page at library. Wears oversized brown tunic with belt and a beret-like hat and black pants.  
  
David: originally from Kakariko Village. Manager of library. Wears Blue tunic, with belt and long black pants.  
  
Link: 10 year old, a librarian's worst nightmare.   
  
Well the story starts like this...  
  
CHAPTER ONE: A FIGURE IN THE WOODS -or- OVERDUE FOR TROUBLE  
(Kelli's POV)   
  
"I still don't see why we had to go all the way to Termina to get this idiot to pay his overdue fees!" Erik whined.   
  
David sighed and shifted on the saddle of our horse, Balona. "I have a spotless record for getting people to pay their overdue fines before they reach over 100 Rupees!"   
"So?" Erik continued.   
"I'm not going to mess it up now!"   
I took a deep breath and shivered beneath my green cloak. "It's freezing in this forest!"   
"No one told you to come, Kelli!" David said.   
"I'm the receptionist. I work inside the library all day! No way am I going to give up a chance to get out!"   
  
The three of us were riding (OK, David was riding. Erik and I were walking.) through a misty and foggy forest in Termina on this fine gloomy day. Why, you ask? Because one of our customers, a dude named Link had checked out "Monsters and How To Kill Them" two years ago and never returned it.   
  
I shuddered, partially from cold and partially from a feeling of evil in the air. "I think Erik has a point. Why couldn't we have waited until he came to the library next time?"   
"I know types like him!" David sneered. "They try to escape the long arm of the law... well it doesn't work on these three librarians!"   
You could almost feel Erik's eyes roll.   
"Erik, are you sure you saw him come this way?" I asked, trying to prevent yet another argument.   
"I tell you, I saw the guy on his horse coming in here!" he retorted.  
  
Suddenly, David's head snapped back behind us. He had seen something.   
"What is it?" I asked.   
"I swear, I just saw two fairies fly behind that tree!" he gasped.   
"So?" Erik asked sarcastically.   
"I don't know. It just kinda startled me!"   
I saw two flashes of light, a yellow one and a black one in front of us.   
"I saw them too!" I cried.   
Suddenly, all three of us heard a twig crack behind us.   
"What the..." Erik started.   
  
We saw a little yellow fairy standing behind us bending a small stick on a tree right next to us backwards. She- um, it let out a tiny laugh, and let the stick go, whapping our horse on the butt.   
The horse neighed in anger and took off straight ahead. David screamed, and Erik and I, who were still grabbing the reins, slipped and were dragged on the ground for another forty feet.   
"AAAAAIEEEEEEEEE!" we screamed.   
I felt a couple of rocks hit me and tear off pieces of my skirt, and I pulled myself up to stand on the stirrups of the saddle.   
I glanced over at Erik, who had also pulled himself up, and at David, who was attempting to calm down our horse.   
Suddenly, the black fairy that David and I had seen appeared in front of us. He uncoiled a long rope hidden behind a tree, and threw it across the path.   
"Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" David yelled as the horse tripped over the rope. The three of us went flying, and we landed in a large puddle of mud.   
  
I opened my eyes ten minutes later and coughed, spraying mud all over. David and Erik had landed next to me, each of them covered in mud.   
I glanced behind us, and I saw the two fairies and another strange figure bent over another person. Another horse stood next to the figure.  
  
The figure stood up, and I recognized him as a Skullkid. He was holding a gleaming blue object, and he played a few notes on it. The fairies laughed, and the person they had taken it from stood up.   
He was about 4 feet tall with a little green tunic and a green hat. He had amazingly blonde hair, and blue eyes.   
I recognized him as the kid with the library books. That was Link if I had ever seen him.   
  
SO! He had been behind us the whole time.   
Erik and David sat up slowly and I hushed them as we watched the scene before us.   
Link stood up and looked Skullkid in the eye. The masked child simply laughed, and leaped up on the horse, spurring it and taking off for a tunnel that was just to our right.   
The kid leaped as far as he could, attempting to grab his horse. The latter resulted in an amazing flop.   
  
Then, Link yelled in rage at the Skullkid who had already passed through the tunnel, and raced after him.   
  
I looked at the guys and shrugged. Actually, only David was there, because Erik had stood and was now running for the opening of the tunnel too.  
"ERIK! YOU IDIOT! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" David screamed.   
"That jerk took my horse!" he yelled back.   
I sighed at David and ran after him. "WAIT FOR ME!"  
  
The tunnel was pitch black, and I couldn't see anything.   
"Erik? Erik, where are you?" I hissed.   
There was no answer.   
Suddenly, David came rushing into the tunnel and barely stopped before shoving me forward.   
"Hey, watch it!" I yelled. I gasped, and I felt myself pitching towards a huge black pit.   
"KELLI!" David screamed.   
I let out a yelp of fright as I plunged into the darkness.   
  
Seconds later, I landed on top something large and soft.   
"OW!" grunted Erik.   
"Sorry," I said sheepishly.   
A few seconds later, David came cashing down, landing feet away from where we were.   
"OUCH!"  
"Watch out for that first step: It's a doozy," Erik laughed.   
"Thanks for the heads-up!" David snarled.   
  
We had landed on a platform next to a small pond. On the other side of the pond, there stood the mysterious Skullkid and one of the two fairies.   
"Well, look who decided to drop in!" the Skullkid laughed.   
The black fairy made a jingling noise. I assumed that he were laughing.   
"Why did you take our horse?" Erik said, his voice growing angry.  
"Oh, that old thing? It wouldn't listen to me, so I took the liberty of getting rid of it!" Skullkid chuckled.   
David stood up, and glared at the Skullkid. "You're a little brat, y'know that?"   
Skullkid thought that that was really funny. "How many times have I been called that today, Tael?"   
The black fairy made the ringing noise and replied, "About 4 already!"  
"What a record!" Skullkid laughed. "And it's only 6:00 in the morning!"   
  
Skullkid looked at the three of us and raised an eyebrow. I think. He was wearing a big weird mask, though, so it was tough to tell.  
"Now what should I do with you?" he pondered to himself.   
"Take all their stuff and hang em' by the foot!" Tael shouted.  
"No, no. Nothing weird, Tael." Skullkid said.  
"You let us go and tell us how to get outta here!" I yelled.   
"Or what?" Skullkid laughed. "Are you going to read me to death?"   
How did he know we were librarians?  
  
Skullkid sat in thought for a few seconds, then snapped his fingers.   
"AHA!" he cried. "Of course!"   
"What is it, Skullkid?" Tael asked.   
Skullkid chuckled. "You remember that kid a few minutes ago who thinks he's chasing us?"   
"The one who you ditched Tatl with?"   
"Yeah. That one. I'm gonna do the same thing to them that I did to him!"   
Our eyes widened and I took a step backwards.   
"OOO! OOO! I wanna watch! Do something different this time, Skullkid!" Tael cried.   
"W-what did you do?" David asked.   
"You'll see!" Skullkid said. "Wow, I've never done anything besides a scrub before... I wonder if I'll be good..."  
"Time to try out your mask!" Tael said.   
"Oh yes."   
Skullkid turned to us and laughed wickedly. "Hold on to your hats, kiddies! You're going for a ride!"   
Skullkid began to shake, and waves of dark power surrounded him. He threw his hands and arms back and screamed.   
We all held our ears. The scream was getting louder and higher... soon it was a shrill yelp.   
  
I was getting a huge headache... I felt every muscle in my body weakening. Suddenly, my knees buckled and I collapsed to the floor.   
I opened my eyes. There were Deku Scrubs marching all around me, singing a strange chant. I stood up and ran. They were running too... faster and faster and faster... I couldn't lose them!   
Suddenly, everything stopped, and the floor dropped out from under me.   
I screamed bloody murder as I fell, crashing to the hard ground like I had before... Then everything went black.  
  
  
My head hurt really badly, when I regained consciousness. Skullkid was laughing maniacally, and I could hear the bell-like laughter of Tael.   
I opened my eyes, and I caught a glimpse of them.   
Skullkid looked over at me and burst into laughter.   
"Oh MAN! I had no idea you'd look so funny!"   
My eyes were still kind of blurry, and I blinked quickly to try and regain my sight. I did, I but not in the way I expected.   
Everything, the small bushes, Skullkid, the pond, everything had gotten bigger.   
"Skullkid, what..."   
I stopped. My voice had been raised an octave higher! I clasped my hands over my mouth and...   
I screamed. Or at least, I think I screamed. I didn't feel my human lips... I felt a long wood-like snout!   
I looked down at my hands. My HANDS! They were wood! And my feet... WOOD! I reached back to touch my hair... It had been changed from tree-bark brown to bark-brown leaves all collected together in a hair-like thing.   
And then it hit me...  
  
I WAS A DEKU SCRUB!  
  
I felt my head get lighter.   
  
My scream had woken Erik. He sat up, and let out a groan.   
I screamed again. Instead of Erik, a huge Goron was in his place! His hair was brown, like normal, but he was wearing a pair of shorts, the same brown color as his tunic had been. He blinked, looked at Skullkid, who was laughing harder than ever, and looked at me.   
His eyes got huge, even for a Goron. "K-Kelli? Is that..."  
Then, he saw his hand. He screamed louder than I had.   
"I'M A GORON!" he shrieked.   
  
Erik's scream had awoken David. A Zora had replaced David's normally tall form! His skin was the same blue color as his tunic, and he was actually wearing a blue tunic fit for a Zora over his body.   
David stood up slowly and looked down at me and Erik.   
"E-Erik? K-Kelli? Is that..."   
Then he saw his hand.   
"AAAAAAAACCCK! I'M A ZORA!"  
  
Skullkid stopped giggling long enough to ridicule us.   
"What's wrong? Do you not like your new bodies? Don't worry! They'll GROW on you! AAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!"   
I looked around in shock... I'M A SCRUB! I'M A SCRUB! I AM A WALKING, TALKING PIECE OF SHRUBBERY!  
  
Skullkid looked at us and grinned. "My best work yet, wouldn't you say, Tael?"   
Tael laughed. "Yep. The girl is pretty cute as a scrub!"   
Oh jeez, I was going to throw up!  
Skullkid gave a final chuckle and looked at his wrist. "My goodness! Why Tael, look at the time! We're expected in Clock Town in just three days!"  
"Let's go!" Tael said.   
Skullkid waved at us and winked. "Well, it's been fun kids, but we've gotta go! Smell ya later!"   
Skullkid and Tael ran through a door immediately behind them. It slammed with a sickening crash, and we all looked at each other.   
  
"I..." Erik stuttered.  
"We..." David gasped.  
"WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE COME HERE!" I screamed.   
"Kelli, calm down!" David scolded.   
"CALM DOWN? CALM DOWN? HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BE CALM?"  
"No kidding!" Erik yelled. "Look at us!"   
"It's not that bad..." David suggested weakly.   
"NOT THAT BAD? David, what's wrong with you?" Erik cried.   
"But we..." he tried to say.  
"WE... are a two-foot tall walking, talking BUSH, a five foot tall ROCK with eyes, and a six foot tall FISH!" I screamed.   
"Kelli, you'd better calm down or..." Erik said.  
"I AM CALM! What's gonna happen? HOW CAN THINGS GET ANY WORSE?"   
Suddenly, I felt really dizzy. I suppose I should have listened to them, I mean I was really weak already, and screaming wasn't going to help.  
"Kelli? You OK?" David asked.   
"Aside from the fact that I am a plant, yes... but..."   
My vision became blurry again, and I stumbled. Then, with Erik and David standing over me, I fainted dead away.  
  
  
Well, Erik, Kelli and David have certainly gotten themselves into a mess! How are they going to get out of the tunnel? Will they ever get used to being a Scrub, a Goron and a Zora? And what is up with Link? Why can't he return his library books on time, anyway? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of MAJORA: HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED!  
  
  
  
  



	2. Escape From The Tunnel

Majora: How It Really Happened!   
By Galaxy Girl and Darmani.  
  
When we last left Kelli, Erik, and David, the troublemaking Skullkid had transformed them from Hylians to a Deku Scrub, a Goron, and a Zora. Now, they're trapped in a small tunnel and Kelli has fainted. How are they going to escape? And what can they do to return to their original forms? Keep reading to find out!  
  
  
CHAPTER TWO: THE ESCAPE FROM THE TUNNEL -or- A SKULLKID IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD  
(Erik's POV)   
  
"Aw MAN!" David sighed. He reached down and tapped Kelli's tiny foot with his scaly hand.   
I sighed and took one more look at my new self. I was huge! I must have weighed at least 600 pounds! I could barely move here on the ground.   
"Hey Erik? A little help isn't too much to ask, is it?" David yelled.   
"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry."  
"Trying to get used to it, eh?"   
"Yeah. Why did this have to happen to us?" I whined.   
"Fate. Bad luck. Whatever," he said.   
I knelt down to the ground, which wasn't very far to go in my current state.   
"Kelli! Kelli, get up!" I yelled.   
"Oooo..." she moaned. She sat up, and shook her head rapidly. Tiny pieces of leaves and twigs flew out of her leafy hair.   
Kelli looked down at herself and sighed. "Crap. It wasn't a dream."   
"Yeah." David said sadly.   
"It's funny. I still feel like a human, but I'm a lot chunkier and a lot fatter." I said.   
"Me too. Except I'm shorter." Kelli replied.   
"Me three. But I'm scaly and taller." David added.   
  
We sat in silence for a while and then Kelli stood up and brushed herself off. "What are we going to do?" she asked forlornly.   
"I don't know..." David said.   
"Skullkid said that the kid in front of us he did the same thing to. Maybe we could find Link and he could help us!" I said hopefully.   
"Great." Kelli said sarcastically. "Let's just stick to getting out of here, first."   
"Good idea," David nodded. He dipped his pale foot in the water of the pond and then stepped in.   
"It's only about three feet deep." David said. He easily swam across.   
Kelli and I stood staring at the water.   
"What?" asked David.   
"I can't swim! I'm a bush!" Kelli said dismayed.   
"And I weigh about 600 pounds. I can't swim either!" I cried.   
"Oh," David said. It must have been hard for him to imagine someone who can't swim. Being a Zora and all.   
I took a step forward, and the immense weight of the Goron sent me pitching forward. I knocked into Kelli and she screamed as she fell towards the pond.   
But instead of landing in the water, she bounced. And she bounced again. In fact, she bounced five times all the way to the other side of the pond.   
"EEK!" she yelped upon reaching the platform. "Hey, cool! I can walk on water!"   
"And what about me?" I asked, getting a little impatient.   
"Good grief Erik, I don't know!" David whined.   
"Hey Erik, remember back at home in the village how the Gorons roll down the mountain?" Kelli asked.   
"Yeah?"   
"Try stepping back and rolling across!" she finished.   
I nodded and stepped all the way back against the wall. Then, I fell over. Involuntarily. But I ended up rolling up into a ball anyway. I leaned forward, and I started to roll towards the pond.   
"OH JEEZ! I'M GONNA PUKE!" I screamed.   
Just before I hit the water, a small rise in the platform acted as a ramp, sending me upwards and to the other side, where I crashed into the door, bending it and knocking it over.   
"Erik! Are you OK?" David asked frantically.   
I was dazed. "Easy squeezy lemon peasy..." I muttered.   
"Huh?"   
I sat up. "Yuh, I'm fine. Let's go!"   
  
I stood up, and we found ourselves in a long hallway. Kelli raced out in front.   
"Come on! This must be the way... OUUUUUUUT?"   
At the end of the hall there was another huge room. This one was made of lots of platforms, and there was no bottom in sight of the gap that separated the platforms.   
"Oh my GOSH! How are we going to get past this?" David yelled.   
"We're STUCK! There's no way we can jump that far!" I cried.   
Kelli paced back and forth angrily. "It's not possible! No way we can cross that AACK!"   
"The AACK?" David asked.   
Kelli had disappeared!  
"Kelli? Where'd you go?" I yelled.   
"I'm in some kind of hole!" she yelled back.   
I noticed for the first time a large flower on the floor near our feet.   
"Come out of there!" David yelled.   
The flower began to wriggle, and Kelli's Deku head popped out of the flower. "I'm stuck!"  
"How can you be stuck?" David asked.   
"Don't ask me. Pull on my head!" she whined.   
I shrugged and reached down to grab her head. She screamed.   
"OW! NOT THE HAIR, NOT THE HAIR!"  
"You're going to have to move around if you want to get out!" David told her.   
"Oh! I think my feet are stuck on a... GRRR! Ouch! That hurts! YIPES!"   
Kelli came flying out of the flower holding two small flowers. Instead of falling, she remained floating in the air for several minutes.   
"That's it!" she yelled. "I can get across like this!"   
"What about us?" I asked.   
"Gee, I don't know! Here, try grabbing my feet," she said.   
I shrugged and reached up, grabbing her small wood-like feet. Amazingly, I became suspended in the air, and she flew over to another platform with another Deku flower.   
She landed, and then burrowed back into the flower. Kelli popped out of this one, and flew back over to pick up David.   
  
And to make a long story short, we made it across the gap to another door.   
  
Sitting next to the door was a small tree with a face that looks like a deformed Deku Scrub.   
"Hey Kelli, it looks like you!" I joked.   
She was not amused.   
"Let's just get out of here!" David sighed.   
We opened the heavy steel door, and we found ourselves in a strange room. There were gears spinning all around us, and a strange song was playing from above us.   
"Where are we?" I whispered.   
"Let's go see!" David said.   
The three of us walked up a series of ramps that we hoped led to the way out of this place.   
  
Finally, after what seemed like forever, we reached the top. The surface was flat, and we could see another door in the darkness. Light was beaming from under the cracks.   
"Here's the way out!" Kelli cried.   
"Finally!" I said. I reached out to push the door open, when something very creepy stopped me.   
"Hello..." said a voice.   
"Who said that?" David asked frantically.  
  
"I've been waiting for you three..."   
  
  
Yikes! Who are they going to talk to now? Hopefully no more Skullkids... and we still don't know why Link is such a bad library patron! SHEEESH! Well, stay tuned to Majora: How It Really Happened! -and find out how a Scrub, a Goron, and a Zora are going to learn to work together and change back to normal.   



	3. Three Days On The Town

Majora: How it Really Happened!   
  
When we left our heroes, they had escaped the tunnel only to find themselves in a strange building. Just as they were about to leave, they heard a strange voice behind them. Who is it? Read on to find out!  
  
  
CHAPTER THREE: THREE NIGHTS ON THE TOWN -Or- A LINK TO ESCAPE  
(David's POV)   
  
We quickly spun around to find the owner of the voice, and found ourselves face-to-face with the scariest man we had ever seen.   
"ACK!" screamed Kelli.  
He was what appeared to be a peddler, carrying a huge bag with a variety of strange masks on it.   
"I see that the imp has gotten to you three, too..." said the mask man.  
"Gee, ya think?" Erik said sarcastically.  
The mask man studied us carefully and nodded. "I see..."   
I tried to make the most out of meeting this strange man. "Have you seen a little scrub pass through here?"  
"Oh yes," he said. "I sent him to recover the thing that the imp stole from me..."   
"What did he do to you?" Erik asked.   
I almost laughed. Anything that the Skullkid had done to him seemed relatively tame compared to his work on us.   
"He stole a very valuable mask from me!" he said. "I sent that child to get it back for me, and I promised to return him to his normal form."  
"You mean..." Kelli said excitedly, "You mean you know how to change us back?"   
"I do," said the mask man.   
"THEN DO IT!" we all shouted at once.  
The mask man shook his head. "No. Until I get my mask back I will not do anything."   
My jaw dropped. "Come on! We're not heroes! We can't get your mask back! We're just librarians from Hyrule, and we got cursed!"   
"I'm sorry," he said coldly. "The return of my mask is more important than returning you to normal!"   
We stared at him for a few seconds, and Erik grabbed the man by the collar with his huge Goron arms. "DO IT OR I'LL..."  
"Erik!" I yelled.  
He took a deep breath and let the mask man go.   
The man straightened out his collar and looked at us sadly. "I do apologize. I didn't mean it to come out the way it did. But it is important that that imp should not keep my mask."  
Kelli sighed. "Come on guys..."  
The mask man waved goodbye as we headed for the door. "Come back in three days! I told the child to return with my mask before the Carnival of Time in three days! Then I'll help you!"   
"Ya, whatever." I snapped.   
  
DAWN OF THE FIRST DAY: 72 HOURS REMAINING  
  
We opened the door and stepped into the light. We found ourselves in the center of a huge town. There were carpenters and villagers all over, apparently building something. I looked up and saw that we had come out of a large clock tower.   
"Well goody. Now we have to wait three whole days until that stupid library terrorist gets back from wherever he is until we can turn back to normal!" Erik yelled.   
"Maybe if we can find that kid in town we can help him out!" I suggested hopefully.   
"Yeah, and maybe I'll get eaten by a dog," Kelli growled.   
I guess that was a bad thing to say, because seconds later, a tiny dog ran over and snarled at Kelli.   
"EEP! Um... nice doggy?" she squeaked.   
"WOOOF!"   
"AAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"   
The dog took off after her, and Kelli screamed bloody murder as she took off towards the south end of town.   
"Kelli, hold on!" Erik cried.   
She apparently couldn't hear, or else she was ignoring him.   
"Oh, come on!" I yelled.   
  
We raced after the tiny dog, and followed the sound of Kelli screaming. Finally, she caught sight of a Deku flower growing inconspicuously near the Clock Tower.   
"Going down!" she yelped as she dove headfirst into the flower.   
The dog jumped on top of the flower and started growling.   
"Down boy!" Erik said as he attempted to shove the dog off of the flower.   
The dog woofed angrily and ran away in search of food, I presume.   
A small head poked out of the flower.   
"Kelli, why did you freak like that?" I asked impatiently.  
"Who's Kelli?"   
The head jumped out, and I saw that the scrub was indeed not Kelli. He had a small green hat, and a yellow fairy was next to him.  
"SHEESH!" the fairy screamed. "If it's not dogs, it's bratty little kids or carpenters in Afros! I HATE THIS TOWN!"   
The scrub walked away with the fairy close behind, and Kelli jumped out of the flower a minute later.   
"What was up with that dog?" Erik mumbled.   
"Well gee, Erik. I'm basically the equivalent of a giant stick!" Kelli snapped.   
"Did you see that scrub?" I gasped. "He... he..."  
"Good grief! How many scrubs are in this town, anyway?" Kelli whined.  
"Kelli! That was Link!" Erik shouted.   
"Really? Jeez, I can't tell in that tiny flower!"   
"Come on!" I yelled. "Let's go talk to him."   
We raced off after Link, who was running towards the North part of town.  
  
We didn't stop for a minute until we reached the grassy meadow that was the north part of Clock Town. We arrived just in time to see the scrub race off into a small cavern on the North wall.   
"Let's get moving!" Erik said.   
We raced by a kid trying to shoot a balloon with a peashooter. As we passed, the kid stared at us.   
"What's up with your clothes?" he asked.   
"What do you mean?" Kelli replied.   
"I mean, Zora's don't wear clothes! And neither do Gorons! And I've never seen a Deku Scrub with a green bandana in her hair!"   
"Shows what you know!" I said angrily. "Come on, guys."   
"I know a lot more than you do, you stupid fish!" the kid laughed. "For instance, I know that the moon is going to crash into Clock Town in three days!"   
Erik stopped short. "Crash? What do you mean?"   
The kid giggled stupidly. "You know. Crash. Fall from the sky and hit the town. A big Kablooie if you wanna call it that."  
When we said nothing for a few minutes, the kid added, "My mom and dad are leaving town in a few days, so we can escape! But you have to stay here since you're just kids and you have no weapons! Unless your parents are here! Hee, Hee!"  
"WE HAVE TO STAY?" Kelli yelled. "What kind of a dumb rule is that?"   
"No kids can leave town without a grown-up. You have to stay and watch the Kablooie. HAHA!"  
"We have got to hurry!" I shouted. "Let's go talk to that kid!"   
  
We ran into the cavern, which turned out to be a huge fountain. Inside the fountain were at least 18 fairies.   
"Oh, this is a lot of help!" Kelli groaned. "And where did that kid go?"   
"Well, at least we know that that kid can't leave town. That should make our job easier!" I said.   
We stepped back outside to see the kid chatting with a man in a green suit over at the far end of the area.   
"Let's hurry!" Erik said.   
We raced as fast as we could to the scrub, but he had already run off.   
"Tingle, Tingle, Koo-loo Limpah!" yelled the man in green.   
"Excuse me?" Erik asked.   
"Hello Mr. Goron! I am... GASP!"   
The man leaned down to Kelli and gave her a great big hug. Her eyes almost popped out of her tiny wooden head.   
"I know you! You're a Forest Fairy!" the man yelled happily.   
"Uh, no. I'm not." Kelli said.   
"Yes you are! Those green clothes! And a big white fairy following you! Lucky, lucky!"   
I realized that I was the fairy he was talking about. "Sir, I'm not a fairy. I'm..."   
"I am Tingle! I am just like you, a Forest Fairy! But I have no fairy! But you... ah, you are lucky! You have the biggest fairy in the world!"   
Erik burst out laughing. I shook my head sadly.   
"I will sell you a map! For cheap! Only five Rupees!" Tingle cried.   
"No thanks. We have a map," Erik said, still slightly giggling.   
"Oh, OK. Ask me anything, anytime, you lucky, lucky little girl!"   
Kelli sighed, and Tingle leaped up and down happily. "Tingle, Tingle, Koo-Loo Limpah!"   
"What exactly are you doing?" I asked.   
"Mr. Fairy, these are Tingle's magic words! He made them up himself!" Tingle giggled. "Don't try to steal them!"   
"I won't... Don't worry, I won't." Kelli sighed.   
We walked away as fast as we could.   
  
"How does he figure that I'm a fairy?" I pondered out loud as we made our way back to the east part of town.   
"People in this town are weird," Erik said.   
"Well Erik, you have the map. Let's see it and find out exactly where in Termina we are." Kelli suggested.   
"Clock Town," I said.  
"Duh. I mean where in the actual world we are," Kelli explained.   
Erik reached for the pocket of his clothes, and then gasped.   
"What is it?" I asked.   
"I... the map..."   
"You do have the map, don't you?" Kelli said frantically.   
"Gee, no. I must have left it on my other body."   
"Great. We have no money, no map, and no idea where Link could have gone!" I whined.   
"Well, it's just one town! How many places could he have gone?" Erik said.   
  
NIGHT OF THE FIRST DAY: 60 HOURS REMAIN  
  
"WE HAVE SEARCHED EVERY PLACE IN THIS FREAKING TOWN!" Erik yelled as we trudged through the west part of Clock Town for what must have been the 40th time.   
"I'm too tired to walk anymore..." I whined.   
"Do you want me to get off of your head? Would that help?" asked Kelli from above me.   
"That would be nice," I replied.   
Kelli hopped off of my scaly head and landed on the ground near us.   
She noticed the look I was giving her and she shrugged. "You were the one whining about how slow I was going!"   
"Fine, fine," I said. "Let's find somewhere to stay."   
  
We kept going until we reached East Clock Town, and I spotted a large building with a sign on the side. "The Stock Pot Inn", it said.   
"Let's go in there," Erik suggested. "Maybe we can get a room."   
"With what money?" I asked.   
"Let's just see," he replied.   
We walked inside and saw a young woman with brilliant red hair standing at the counter. "Oh, hello!" she said. "Welcome to the Stock Pot Inn! I am Anju, how can I help you?"   
"We need a room," Kelli said.   
"I've never had a group of non-humans before..." she thought out loud. "Well, I think we may... no, I'm sorry. We're booked with reservations. Unless... you have a reservation?"  
"Um, yes," I said.   
"Under what name?" Anju asked.   
We stared at her for a minute, and suddenly, she snapped her fingers.  
"Of course!" she said. "A Goron. You must be Mr. Link!"   
"Mr. LINK?" Erik asked.   
"Yes, you were planning to stay here for three days?"   
"Oh yeah. Yes, I'm Mr. Link!" Erik said.   
"I didn't know you had others with you... Oh well. Here's your room key. You're in the knife chamber, upstairs. Thank you very much! Enjoy your stay, and please relax."   
Erik took the room key and we turned to the right to go up the stairs.   
"What luck!" Kelli grinned.   
I was equally pleased. "Yeah, who could have thought we'd get a nice warm, clean, comfortable room to..."   
Erik opened the door, and I stopped short.   
  
The room was tiny, with dirty clothes lying everywhere and the wallpaper stained and bent.  
"What a dump!" I yelled. "Look at this, the wallpaper is falling off!"   
"There's only one bed!" Kelli said disappointedly.   
"Oh well. It'll have to do," Erik said.   
"Fine then, I get it," Kelli said quickly.   
She leaped up onto the bed and screamed.   
"What?" I asked.   
"These blankets are filthy! No way am I sleeping here!" she whined.   
"OK, if you don't want it I get it!" I said.   
I sat one the bed and stretched out, only to find it way too small for my tall Zora stature.  
"Um, I don't think so."   
Erik grinned with delight. "Great! Then it's all mine!"   
He carefully jumped onto the bed, and spread out on it. It was just his size.   
"Ah! The mattress is a little hard, though."   
Suddenly, we heard a loud creak.   
"What was that?" Kelli asked. She had opened up a dresser drawer and was laid out in the soft clean clothes inside.   
"Beats me. Probably the room next door," I said.   
"I think it was coming from the bed..." Erik said.   
The creak sounded again, and Erik looked at us all in fright.   
The bed creaked one more time, and suddenly, the entire floor beneath the bed splintered under Erik's weight and crashed to the first floor.  
"AAAIIIIEEEEEE!" he yelled.  
  
CRASH!  
  
"Oh, hello Tortus... would you like to hear a story?"   
"Um... no thanks, lady..." Erik said sheepishly.   
  
DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY: 48 HOURS REMAIN  
  
"Now that we have NO more money for paying back the innkeeper, what else are we going to do?" Kelli cried desperately.  
"I'm sorry, Little Deku Scrub. I have no money to spare. Not even five Rupees to buy you a map," said the man.   
"PLEEEEEEASE? WE'RE BEGGING YOU!" we shouted.  
"Sorry. I need to go back home now," he said, and he walked away.   
"OH NO! WE ARE GOING TO STARVE!" Erik cried. "I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE! AND I'M A GORON! I NEED TO DIE HUMAN!"  
My stomach growled, and I sighed. "You think Anju could have let us at least eat breakfast before she kicked us out?"   
"Well, considering that we totaled TWO of her rooms and didn't have the money to pay for the damage, I don't think so!" Kelli said.   
"Maybe we could go ask that Tingle guy if we could stay at his house..." Erik said hopefully.   
"NU-UH! NO WAY!" Kelli and I yelled.   
Erik shrugged. "I just wanna know why that she was so mad at that other Goron when he came in right after us."   
  
We were walking through south Clock Town around noon when I felt my stomach growl again.  
I sighed and smiled dreamily. "You know what sounds good right now?"   
"What?" Kelli asked.   
"A nice, big juicy... worm..."   
"A WORM?" Erik screamed.   
"A worm? Did I say Worm?" I queried.   
"Yeah. Gross! Why did you say worm?" Kelli commented.   
"I don't know... I didn't mean to say worm... Ew."   
"Hmm." Erik shrugged.   
"So what are we going to do now?" I asked.   
"We should try and find somewhere to stay," Kelli said.   
We kept walking for almost three hours, when Erik noticed we had company.   
"PSST! There are a bunch of kids following us!"   
I recognized one of them as the annoying kid from the other day.   
"Play along, guys," Erik said.   
We stopped in the middle of the street and pretended to be looking around.   
The kids walked up real close behind us and poked Erik in the back.   
"Stop it!" he said.   
We kept walking, and the kids kept poking Erik on the back. "Cut it out, you little brats!"   
Finally, it was the last straw. "WILL YOU STOP IT?" Erik screamed.   
The kids all laughed, and I sighed.   
I turned around, bared my sharp Zora teeth, and made a fake growl.   
"Grr."   
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"   
The kids ran for it, screaming all the way.   
"I'm still telling you, guys. We should go ask Tingle if we can stay at his house!" Erik said.   
Kelli disagreed. "Nu-uh! NOOOO WAY! We are NOT staying at that freak's house!"   
  
NIGHT OF THE SECOND DAY: 36 HOURS REMAIN  
  
"I can't believe we are staying at that freak's house!" Kelli moaned a few hours later.  
"Thanks again for letting us stay with you, Tingle," Erik said, trying to keep from laughing.   
"Yeah, yeah..." Kelli whined.   
"FAIRY! LUCKY! FAIRY! LUCKY! WOOOOO!"  
After much debate, we had finally decided to stay at Tingle's house, even if it meant being hassled for the rest of the time we were in these bodies.   
Kelli was again forced to sleep in a dresser drawer, because Tingle had only one bed and she refused to share a bed with that "deranged imbecile", no matter how much Tingle begged her.  
Erik had taken the curtains off of the windows and curled them up next to the dresser. He planned to curl up and fall asleep in the curtains.  
And me? I was set up in a rudimentary hammock tied between two coat hangers.   
"Hey Tingle, you got any rocks?" Erik asked, patting his stomach.   
"No... rocks are for Gorons! We Forest Fairies eat leaves and nuts and berries!"  
Kelli sighed. "Whatever. I'm going to sleep."  
At about 12:00, Tingle began jumping around and singing some kind of demented chant. All three of us were still awake.   
"Do you mind?" I snapped.   
"Of course not!" Tingle cried happily. Then he began singing his "magic words" and spinning around.   
"Why are you doing that?" Kelli growled. "It's 12:00 at night! Shouldn't you be trying to sleep?"   
"Forest Fairies don't need to sleep!" Tingle sang.   
"Well this one does!" Kelli groaned.   
Tingle stopped singing and looked at Kelli confusedly. "Eh? Are you telling Tingle that you aren't a Forest Fairy?"   
Kelli smiled and stood up. "YES! I AM! I am NOT a Forest Fairy! Thank you for finally realizing that!"   
Tingle looked confused.   
"Do I have to explain this AGAIN? I am not a Forest Fairy. He is not my fairy, he is a Zora. None of us are a Deku, a Goron, or a Zora! We are humans! A Skullkid who thinks he's really cool changed us! And for the last time... YOU ARE NOT A FAIRY!"   
Tingle raised an eyebrow and burst out laughing. "O HOHO! YOU FOREST FAIRIES ARE SOOOOO FUNNY! GREAT JOKE, YOU FUNNY LITTLE FOREST FAIRY GIRL! O HOHOHOHOHO!"   
Kelli sighed and fell back into the drawer. "Oh jeez, I give up!"   
Tingle continued dancing around, and finally Kelli decided to lay off.   
"It's about time!" Erik said.   
"Yeah, I mean you could have been going at it for hours!" I told her.   
"Excuse me for trying to help a poor confused little..."  
Suddenly, Kelli made a noise like a hiccup, but much higher and louder.   
"HEEEEEP!"   
"What was that?" Erik cried.  
"OH! It's a magic Forest Fairy chant! Maybe a fairy will come to me if I say it! HEEEEEP! HEEEEEP! HEEEEEP! HEEEEEP! HAHAHAHA!" Tingle shouted.   
Kelli covered her "snout" with her hands and squeaked, "Did that come outta me?"   
"What was that noise?" I asked.   
"I... HEEEEEP! HEEEEEP!"   
Erik jumped up as best he could for a Goron.   
"That sounded like a Deku call!"   
Kelli made a horrified face. "I... I didn't... What's going on with my... HEEEEEP!"   
"I don't know..." I said quietly. As quietly as I could and still be heard with Tingle's screaming.   
"This is not a good- HEEEEEP!" Kelli said.   
"I'm not sure..." Erik said. "Maybe tomorrow we should..." His eyes went blank. "Duh... um... mask... uh,... dude... see... duh..."   
"Definitely!" I cried. "This is NOT a good sign at all!"   
"TINGLE WILL HELP HIS FRIENDS!" Tingle yelled. He waved his hands around the hiccuping Kelli and the blank-faced Erik.   
"TINGLE, TINGLE, KOOLOO LIMPAH!"   
I rolled my eyes.   
"Let's just HEEEEEP try to go to HEEEEEP bed!" Kelli said as best she could. "We can HEEEEEP see the HEEEEEP mask dude to- HEEEEEEP morrow!"   
  
DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY: 24 HOURS REMAIN  
  
As soon as we woke up the next day, I could tell that something was amazingly wrong. I was wheezing for breath, and I found it tough to walk on land.   
"Ohh... I feel sick!" I moaned.   
Kelli was worse, too. "Let's HEEEEEP go HEEEEEEP see HEEEEEEEP the HEEEEEEEP mask HEEEEEEEP guy!"   
Erik seemed to have his on and off moments. "Duh... mask... dude... let's... go see him now!"   
Tingle seemed disappointed that we had to go. "Please come back and visit Tingle, Miss Fairy Lady."  
"Sure HEEEEEEP Tingle, I'll HEEEEEEEEP be sure to come HEEEEEEEP by!"   
We bid Tingle a very long goodbye and set off running for the Clock Tower.   
  
We passed everyone in town on the way to South Clock Town, and when we finally reached the tower, Erik pushed the door open and we raced inside.   
"Ah, my friends! You have returned! Did you find that poor cursed child?"   
"The... only... cursed... child... we're... looking... for... is... Skullkid," I wheezed.   
"What's wrong?" he asked.   
"This HEEEEEEEP is HEEEEEEP wrong!" Kelli yelped.   
The mask man didn't understand.   
Erik was having an on moment, so he quickly explained. "Kelli can't talk without saying HEEEEEP, David is having a problem breathing on land, and I am getting stupider by the minute! HELP!"   
The mask man gasped and quickly ran over to me. He looked into my deep eyes. "Oh no! Just as I thought!"   
"What?" I gasped.   
"Your eyes... they are growing more fish-like... oh dear, oh dear... Take a deep breath, please."   
I did so. He gasped again.   
"Gills! You're using your gills! Oh dear... young Deku Scrub girl! Please, let me see you."  
Kelli walked over to him, and he looked at her eyes. "Her too! Oh no... It's worse than I thought..."   
"What's... duh... hap... duh... happ-en-ing?" Erik stuttered.   
"It appears that Skullkid has found a new power to his mask... You are all three victims of the Spirit Consummation Curse..." the mask seller said sadly.   
"What... HEEEEEEEP does that me-HEEEEEEEEP mean?" Kelli squeaked.   
"When he turned you into the creatures you are... he apparently added a new part to the curse... The longer you stay in those bodies... the less human you become!"   
"I... duh... don't like the way you said that!" Erik said slowly.   
"You, Goron boy, are already losing brain power... soon you'll be eating rocks and walking slowly... and in a while, you'll forget that you ever were a human boy!"   
Erik gasped. "But... I..."   
"The same for all of you!" the mask man wailed. "The Zora will soon need to breathe the water every three days... the Deku shall soon lose her ability to speak... and assuming that you continue to deteriorate rapidly as you have in the last 12 hours... by midnight tonight, you shall lose your memories!"   
"HEEEEP! HEEEEEEEP! HEEEEEEEP!" Kelli squeaked in terror.   
"What can we do?" I coughed frantically.   
"The only way is to teach you the song..."   
"THEN DO IT!" we all screamed.   
"HEEEEEP!" added Kelli.   
"No, no! I told you, not until I get my mask back!"   
We sat in silence, staring at the stubborn idiot in front of us.   
Suddenly, Kelli leaped onto his neck and started slapping him. "TEACH US THAT FLIPPING SONG, YOU IDIOT, BEFORE I GNAW YOUR FACE OFF WITH MY NON-EXISTANT TEETH... HEEEEEEP!"   
"I... cannot!" he wheezed.   
I pulled Kelli off of him, and dropped to my knees. "Please! Please, we're begging you!"   
"Please! Just wait three more hours!" the mask man said. "It will be dark, and the cursed child Link and the Skullkid shall meet again, I can see it! Then, I will un-curse you! Just try to hold on!"   
"We can't!" Erik cried.   
"You have no other choice," the mask man said gravely. "Wait three hours... or else you shall remain the way you are forever."   
  
  
A startling revelation! Now, our favorite librarians have to find Link, before they lose their human memories and remain cursed for the rest of their lives! Will they succeed? Can they wait for three more hours? Only I could tell you, so stay tuned!  
  
  



	4. The Battle With Skull Bra- I MEAN KID!

Majora: How it really Happened  
  
CHAPTER FOUR: THE BATTLE WITH SKULLBRA- I MEAN KID!  
(Kelli's POV)   
  
The mask man's last comment struck fear into all three of us... Did he say what I think he said?  
"You mean..." Erik said slowly," By midnight tonight... We will be in our present forms forever?"  
"I'm afraid so," the mask man said. "Of course, that's only a guess... If it speeds up, you could be rolling around, eating rocks, and squeaking up a storm in the next half hour..."   
"Oh, great HEEEEEEEP job trying to HEEEEEEEEP reassure us!" I yelled.   
The mask man sighed. "If only I could teach you that song!"   
"DO IT!" we screamed.   
"Well... No. I made a promise to that cursed child, and I won't break it even for you."   
"LINK ISN'T GOING TO BE A DEKU FOREVER!" David cried.   
"I know," the mask man said. "And that's why I feel so bad not being able to help you... But what would Link think?"   
"Duhhh... that rhymes!" Erik said joyfully.   
I take it he was in an off-moment.  
"Oh HEEEEEEEEP please!" I said, with some of the last of my English I could pronounce.   
"OOOOH! I cannot bear your grief any longer! Good luck, you poor cursed children... Fare thee well!" the mask man wailed. Then, as if by magic he disappeared.   
We stood there for a minute, and then I lost it.  
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I wailed. "I'm HEEEEEEEEP going to be a HEEEEEEEEP scrub for HEEEEEEEP ever!"  
Erik's brain was back on. "I... I can't believe it's going to come to this..."   
David said nothing. Suddenly, he screamed and ran over to the wall of the Clock Tower, banging on it and yelling.   
"THAT STUPID TERRORIST BRAT IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!" he yelled. "THIS IS ALL HIS FAULT!"   
I tried to reply, but to my horror, nothing came out but squeaks.   
Erik and David stared at me. "K-Kelli? Can you... understand us?"   
"Yes," I said. Actually, I said EEEEEEP! -but I meant to say yes.  
They raised an eyebrow.   
I nodded.   
"We have GOT to find Link!" Erik cried. "We need to help him get that mask back! Or else..."   
"We need to find Skullkid first!" I said.   
  
(Try to remember that for the rest of my speaking, I'm not speaking English.)  
  
David stared at me and shook his head. "No Erik. We need some paper and a pen for Kelli!"   
"Can she still write?" Erik asked.   
"Hey! I still understand you! And yes, I can write!" I yelled.   
"Let's go talk to Tingle!" David said.   
I yelled as loud as I could. "NOOOOOOOO!"  
"We have to, Kelli!" Erik said, knowing enough what that meant. "He's the only one in town we can beg for money from!"  
I sighed.   
  
"Forest Fairy can't speak English anymore?" Tingle asked me.   
I shook my head.   
"Oh! You must teach Tingle Forest Fairy language, so then a fairy will REALLY come to me!"   
I said a few curse words in Deku.   
Tingle grinned. "Ooooh! Now I know how to say EEEEPPPEEEEEP! I'll go talk to that nice Business Scrub over there!"   
Tingle dropped all of his paper and ran off after the scrub.   
I chuckled. David and Erik gathered up the paper and a pen and handed it to me.  
I scribbled out a message and handed it to them.   
"Tingle just told that Deku Scrub 'Curse your small wooden mother, I light your father on fire with a stick'?" Erik said.   
I nodded and smiled.   
David rolled his eyes. "Well, we have some more important stuff to do right now!"   
"Where could that brat have gone?" Erik pondered.   
"Ya lookin for someone?" a voice said. We spun around and saw the kid from the other day who told us about the moon crashing.   
"Yes... what can you tell us?" David replied.   
"'Bout who?"   
"A certain 'Skullkid' character."   
"Oh! Him! I let him join the Bombers a long time ago, but he was a jerk... I've seen him on top of the clock tower."  
"On top of the Clock Tower?" I repeated.   
Erik tried to hand me the paper, but I shook my head. "No, it wasn't important."   
"STOP IT!" Erik told me.   
David sighed. "On top of the Clock Tower?"   
"Yea."   
David nodded. "How about a little Deku scrub? You seen him?"   
"Looks a lot like her?" asked the kid, pointing at me.   
"Yeah."   
"He just joined our club! I think he's on his way to South Clock town to catch the Carnival of Time in an hour. Hey, there he is!" the kid said.   
I turned to see Link the Deku Scrub racing out of North Clock town.   
"COME ON! LET'S GO!" I yelled.   
I ran, but I didn't here the guys behind me. They were trying to figure out what I had said.   
I stomped on David's foot and pointed to the door.   
"Oh, let's go!" Erik said.   
  
We caught up with Link in East Clock town around 6:30 PM.   
"Hey, do you guys mind? I'm in a hurry!" he whined.   
"Well, we have a problem that only you can help with!" David said.   
"Yea? What's that?"   
"We need you to get that Skullkid's mask back!" I said.   
He nodded his head.   
"You understand me?"   
"Of course." Link said.   
"Do you understand her?" Erik asked.   
"I AM a scrub, ya know."  
"Well anyway, we really need you to go up on that Clock Tower and get that Skullkid and take the mask he's wearing back!" David said.   
"What? YOU need me to do that TOO?"   
"YES!" we all screamed.   
"Oh. Well, I have to wait until midnight when the door opens up." Link said innocently.   
"Well, we don't have until midnight!" Erik told him frantically.   
"Why? What..."   
Suddenly, a fairy flew out of his hat and knocked him in the head. "Link, you moron! We don't have time to be talking with these three dorks!"  
"Tatl, will you calm down?"   
"NO! WE ONLY HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT UNTIL THAT MASK MAN LEAVES TOWN FOR GOOD!"   
"But they need..."   
"Do I really CARE what an overgrown fish, a walking rock and a lump of firewood want to say? NOOOOOO!"   
Suddenly Erik reached out and grabbed the fairy in mid-air. "YOU! I know who YOU are! YOU are that little fairy wench who got us into this mess!"  
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Tatl whined.  
"You and that dork Skullkid are the reason we're even HERE in this town!" David yelled.   
"We oughtta beat the life outta you, you witch!" I wrote on the paper.   
Link grabbed Tatl out of Erik's hand and waved. "Sorry about that! I really need to go! It's 8:00 already!"   
They ran down the street, Tatl whining the whole way.  
"8:00? Already? Wow, time sure goes fast here in Termina!" David said.   
"Let's get moving! In four stinkin' hours it'll be midnight! We have to go to the clock Tower!" I wrote.   
They nodded.   
"I just hope this Link guy knows what he's doing!" Erik said.   
  
We were caught in a rush of people who were fleeing the town as we tried to leave East clock town, and to make a long story short, yada, yada, yada... It was 11:30 when we finally reached South Clock Town.  
"Where did he go?" David said, trying to stop his legs from shaking.   
"Duh... duh... duh hurry... duh moon... duh... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... KAPLOWIE!" Erik stuttered.   
"That's right," I wrote.   
We frantically looked around the town, until we saw Link standing near the Deku flower we had first seen him in on our first day in town.   
"THERE!" I shouted.   
We ran up to the flower, but by the time we got there, Link had already leaped inside and was flying up to the top of the Clock Tower.   
"OK, same as last time!" I wrote on the paper. Erik and David nodded, but I could see Erik's eyes getting more vacant as we spoke.   
I dove into the flower, and when I sprung out, Erik had grabbed onto my foot and I carried him up to the tower. Fireworks were going off around us, and the door to the top of the tower had already opened. I could see Link disappearing into the shadows by the door.   
"Hurry!" David cried.   
I leaped back down and carried David up, and we raced up the stairs after them.   
  
At the top, we saw Link staring up in the sky at a scary-looking moon that was inching closer to the earth. Skullkid stood in mid-air, with the black fairy next to him.   
"S-Sis!" the black fairy cried.  
"There you are Tael! Skullkid, we've been looking for you!" Tatl yelled.   
"Hey Link, ya got a minute?" David asked quickly, tapping him on the shoulder.   
"Hmm... let me think... NO!" Link screamed.   
Tael flew forward and made a ringing noise.   
"Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. The four who are there, bring them here!" Tael said.   
Skullkid swung around and slapped Tael straight out of the air.   
"Don't speak out of line, stupid fairy!"   
"NOOO! What are you doing to my brother?" Tatl cried. "Skullkid, do you think we're going to be your friend after that?"   
Skullkid crossed his arms like the four-year old he was. "Ya, whatever," he said.   
Then, Skullkid turned to Link.   
"If it's something that can be stopped, STOP IT! AAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"   
Then, Skullkid threw his arms up, and let out the same awful scream we had heard in our last conscious minutes as humans.   
We covered our ears, and waves of dark energy spread all around the deranged Skullkid. Suddenly, the moon began to fall! Slowly, but still falling!   
Link gasped and looked around frantically. Then, he leaped up in the air, and blew a large bubble out of his Deku snout, shooting it at Skullkid. It hit him, and he stumbled.   
A strange blue object fell out of Skullkid's grip and tumbled to the roof.   
Link raced forward and grabbed it.   
"YES! I got it back!" he cried.   
"Got what?" Tatl yelled. "That instrument isn't going to help us!"   
All of a sudden, Link's eyes faded out and he went into a state of partial consciousness.   
"Link? LINK? LINK! WAKE UP!" Tatl screamed, crashing into Link's head repeatedly.   
  
David looked around frantically. "We need to do something!"   
Skullkid laughed. "Well look who it is! The little librarians from Hyrule! OOH, have you come to get me back for turning you into freaks?"   
I leaped up and down and chattered rapidly. Skullkid raised an eyebrow and scratched his head. "What did she say?"   
That was it. I had had it.   
I leaped at that annoying little fairy kid, and Erik held me back.   
"Duh... Skull... guy... duh, kill... duh..."   
  
Without warning, Link snapped out of his unconsciousness.   
"It's about time! What are you doing daydreaming? This is no time for a trip down memory lane!" Tatl snapped.  
Skullkid laughed, and Tatl looked up at the sky. "Goddess of Time! Please, help us! We need more time!"   
Link snapped his fingers. "Of course! Zelda's Ocarina!"   
"Who's Zelda?" Tatl asked angrily.   
"Princess Zelda!" I squeaked.   
Link reached behind his back and pulled out... a set of bagpipes?   
"WHAT? Where did you get that?" Tatl yelled.   
Link took a deep breath and played a strange song...   
I recognized it as a hymn that we sing during festivals back home in Hyrule. If only I could remember the words...   
"I know that song!" David said. "That's..."   
"Time flows.... Everyday... there is no stopping time flowing like river deep... By night... Time goes by... O, like a golden bird flying bright time goes by..." I sang softly.   
Skullkid looked at Link weirdly. "Yeah, so? You can play a... YAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!"   
A bright blinding light filled the area, and I felt the floor beneath me disappear... I was falling!   
I screamed, but it simply echoed against the walls of light. Then, everything went black...   
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA... huh?"   
I opened my eyes.   
Erik and David were right next to me. We were in North Clock Town.   
"Wha... what just happened?" I stuttered.   
"I don't know..." Erik replied.   
"Huh? Kelli! You're speaking English! And Erik, you said something intelligent!" David screamed. "I can walk!"   
"Then that means..." I stammered.   
We looked around. Tingle was drawing a map again, the kid was trying to pop a balloon with a peashooter, and...   
"Everything has started over!" we cried joyfully.   
We ran over to a guard. "Officer, what day is it?" Erik asked.   
"Why, it's two days before the eve of the Carnival of Time, of course!"   
I stifled a scream and we ran back towards the exit to East Clock Town.   
"I can't believe it! That song... the Song of Time! Of course!" David yammered. "I can't believe it! We have all the time we lost back! This is great!"   
I was equally pleased. "I know! This is so..."   
"AAAAAAAAAGH! IT'S A FOREST FAIRY JUST LIKE MEEEEE!"   
Someone grabbed me from behind and squeezed me hard.   
"TINGLE!" I cried.   
"Huh? How do you know Tingle's name? YOU MUST BE A MAGIC FOREST FAIRY!"   
I wiggled out of his grip and we raced off for East Clock Town.   
"I wonder why Tingle doesn't remember me... I suppose I should be glad!" I said.  
"This is so weird!" Erik said. "Oh look! The Stock Pot Inn!"  
We ran inside, and Anju threw us a weird look. Erik ran upstairs. "LOOOK! THE CEILING IS FIXED!"   
"YAAAAAAAY!" we screamed, running back outside.   
We danced around, screaming.   
"WE ARE BACK TO DAY ONE! WE HAVE MORE TIME BEFORE WE BECOME LIKE THIS FOREVER!" we cried happily.   
Suddenly, a young child with blonde hair in a green suit walked by us staring.   
"What are you... huh?" Erik cried.   
"Why are you screaming like that?" he said.   
"You... you are Link!" I said.   
"Uh huh. I thought you only spoke Deku!"   
Tatl flew out of his hat and smacked him. "You idiot! Remember?"   
"Oh yeah," Link said.   
"How... you were a Deku Scrub! What happened?" David asked.   
"The mask guy in the Clock Tower changed me back. How did you know about..."   
"MOVE IT!" Erik screamed. We shoved him out of the way and raced for South Clock Town.   
"He changed him back! That means... he'll change US back!" I cried in joy.   
  
We reached the Clock Tower and threw open the doors. "YOU!" we cried, pointing at the mask man.   
"Huh? Oh, it's you, poor cursed children. What can I..."   
"We saw Link, bubba!" David said. "Now change us back, too!"   
"Oh, that. Well... No."   
"Whaddya mean, no?" Erik yelled.   
"I told him I wouldn't change him back until I got my mask back!" the mask man said.   
"Yeah, well you got it!" I said.   
"No, I didn't."   
"You didn't?" David said, surprised.   
"No. That child... he got back the instrument that the imp stole from him, so I changed him back."  
"SO?" I said. "He didn't steal anything from us, except our humanity. So change us back?"  
The mask man scratched his chin. "That child played a cruel joke on me. He made me think he had my mask, but he didn't."  
"We didn't play any joke!" Erik said. "Please change us back!"  
"Fine, fine. Come stand here, by the organ."   
"YES!" I cried happily.   
We did so, and he sat down. "Follow along after me."  
"On what?" David asked.   
"You have no instrument?"  
"No," Erik said.   
"All right, so I'll play it."   
The man cracked his knuckles, and tapped out a few notes on the organ. "This is the Song of Healing."   
I was confused. "That?"  
"NOOO! This!"  
The man played a short song, and then looked hopefully at us.  
"Uh... nothing happened." David said.   
"Hmm. I'll try again."   
He played it again.  
"What's going on?" Erik asked. "Nothing happened!"   
"That's odd..." he said. "What did I do differently with that kid? Uh oh..."  
"UH OH? I don't like uh-oh!" I said.   
"Well... It seems that this song will only work..."   
"Yeah?" David said.   
"It'll only work..."   
"Will you just say it?" Erik whined.   
"It'll only work if played on an Ocarina," the mask man said sheepishly.  
  



	5. A New Flippin' Journey

Majora: How It Really Happened  
  
  
CHAPTER FIVE: A NEW FLIPPIN' JOURNEY  
(Erik's POV)   
  
"OCARINA?" we echoed.  
"Yes, an Ocarina," the mask man said.   
We stood in silence for a few seconds. Then, David lost it for possibly the first time since we had come to Termina.   
He grabbed the mask man by the throat and shook him hard.   
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MEEEEE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MEEEEEE?" he screamed.   
"AAAAYYY! AAAAAAY! LET GO!"   
"Keep going David!" Kelli jeered. "Cut his flippin' head off!"   
"You GUYYYYYYS! Calm down!" I said.  
"CALM DOWN? CALM DOWN? I AM A FIIIISH!" David yelled.   
"I AM A SHRUB!" Kelli screamed after him.   
"And I'm a rock! I'm learning to live with it!" I said.   
"What are we supposed to do now?" David asked, starting the calming down process.   
Suddenly we heard a terrible noise. "AIR!"   
David let the mask man go immediately. "Sorry."  
The mask man coughed and straightened out his collar once again. "Well..."  
"Hey, Link is back to normal! Does he have an Ocarina?" Kelli asked.  
"He does."   
"GREAT!" I cried. "We can find Link, have him play the Song of Healing for us, and we can be back to normal before the Carnival of Time starts in three days!"   
"It may not be that easy!" the mask man warned.   
"Why is that?" David queried.   
"I just sent that child Link to go to the four temples and get the four who are there."   
"The WHO?" Kelli said.   
"I can't tell you now, it's a really long story. But I suspect he may be leaving town in a few hours, so you'd better get moving!" the mask man said.   
"Gee, you're right!" I said.   
We turned to leave, and Kelli waved goodbye. "Thanks for all your help, Mr. Mask Dude!"   
"Help?" David grumbled. "What help?"   
  
Outside the Clock Tower, I began to feel hungry for the first time.   
"Oh man! I am starving!" I moaned.   
"Not for a rock, right?" Kelli asked worriedly.  
"No, for a steak."   
"Good," David said. "Before we get something to eat, let's go ask around and see where Link may have gone."   
We wandered around until we found a carpenter who was carrying wood to help build the moon watching tower.   
"You got any idea where a small kid in a green suit may have gone?" I asked.   
"Yuh, I saw him headed for the Stock Pot Inn a few seconds ago."   
We thanked the carpenter and ran off to East Clock town to the Stock Pot Inn.   
  
As soon as we arrived, I began to get shaky.   
"What's wrong?" David asked me.   
"I have a bad feeling... I mean, last time..."   
"We won't stay in a room this time, Erik. We need to find out where Link went." Kelli assured me.   
We walked inside and asked Anju if we could get some chow.   
"Well... we aren't really a cafeteria anymore, but I suppose you could hang around until I fix lunch."   
"Thanks. Hey, have you seen a little kid in a green suit with a yellow fairy come through here?" I asked.  
"Yeah, he went upstairs to wait for lunch!" Anju said.   
We thanked her and walked upstairs to find somewhere to wait. Also to look for you-know-who.   
"I'm not going anywhere near that room!" I told the others.   
"No problem. We'll just go inside this room next to it, and..." David said. He was interrupted by a strange music blaring from inside the room.   
"I swear, I've heard that music before..." said Kelli.   
David opened the door, and we all three shrieked in terror.   
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WINDMILL GUY!" Kelli screamed louder than us all. Then she passed out.  
Standing at the other end of the room was a short bald man holding a street organ and playing a very weird song.   
"What's-a wrong with-a her?" he asked.  
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a brother who lives in Hyrule, would you?" I asked, a little shaky.   
"No, why-a?"   
"You look amazingly like someone who we know..." David said.   
Kelli sat up quickly and raced out the door. "WELLTHAT'SVERYINTERESTING,GOTTAGOBYE!"  
We followed her quickly, and once outside I yelled at her.   
"What's wrong with you?" I yelled.   
"I swear, that guy looks exactly like the one back home!" she said.   
"So?" David said.   
"I promise you, that guy is out of his mind!" she warned.  
"Yeah, sure Kelli," we both said.   
"I tell you, he came after me one day when I went to give him a fruit basket!"   
"Why were you giving him a fruit basket?" I asked.   
"It was Christmas, and my mom told me to!" she said. "My mom... I wonder if I'll ever see her again."   
"If we don't get down to the kitchen, we WON'T!" David whined. "Listen, the lunch bell is ringing!"   
We went downstairs to the kitchen of the Stock Pot Inn, which was a few rooms away from the room where I had crashed.  
  
Inside, I barely stopped myself from screaming when we saw Link sitting at one of the two tables inside. Anju was stirring a pot of soup.   
"Welcome, please sit down. Lunch will be ready momentarily," she said.   
Kelli was getting antsy as she sat down, and only David stopped her from leaping up and asking Link for his help.   
"Oh... I'm sorry... I didn't realize... will you be wanting any... special orders?" asked Anju worriedly.   
"Huh? Oh, no." I told her reassuringly.   
"Oh thank goodness! I've never really cooked for Gorons before, so I didn't know!" Anju smiled.   
"Oh, you know. We like rocks, but we're flexible. We have a balanced diet, and that's all that's important," I said.   
Anju raised an eyebrow and turned back to the soup.  
"PSSST!" David hissed. "Come on, let's go talk to Link!"   
"No way!" I said. "Look, he'll get suspicious if he sees us watching him."  
"Let's just go NOW!" Kelli whined. "This may be our last chance!"  
"I'm sure it won't be!" I said.   
Anju ladled out three bowls of soup and set them in front of us. "It's Cucco soup. Are you all right with that?"  
"It's fine, thanks," Kelli said.   
Then, she poured two more bowls and handed them both to Link across the room.  
"Um, excuse me? Why do I have two bowls?" Link asked confusedly.   
"Oh, I thought... your fairy..."   
"YOU IDIOT!" Tatl screamed. "I'm a FAIRY! Does it look like I can eat soup?"   
"I-I'm sorry..." Anju said.  
"Tatl, no need to be rude. I'm hungry anyway. I'll eat them both," Link assured her, throwing a look to Tatl.   
The three of us stared in confusion at our spoons.   
"Well... I suppose if I can... oops," Kelli said. She had attempted to pick up her spoon, but the finely polished silver made it very difficult for her wood fingers to do so. She had dropped the spoon on the floor.   
"I'm sorry! Here, let me get you another one," Anju said. She handed Kelli a new spoon.  
Kelli dropped that one too.  
I didn't have too much trouble getting the spoon up and eating without problems, but David was another story.   
He could hold the spoon, but every time he raised his hand to eat, his fin knocked me in the back of the head.   
"Whoops, sorry," he said.   
"Watch it!" I snapped.   
"Oops," Kelli said from the other side of the table. She had dropped yet another spoon.   
Finally, Kelli managed to lift the spoon and load it with broth. She was just about to eat the spoonful, when David -who had tried the spoon in his other hand to avoid hitting me- whacked her in the back of the head with his other fin.   
She dropped the spoon in the soup bowl.   
"Whoops, sorry." David said sheepishly.  
Kelli grumbled and decided to try fishing the spoon out with her hands.   
Anju sighed and walked away to tend to other matters.   
Link was staring at us. When we turned to watch him, he quickly turned his attention back to eating.   
"This is ridiculous!" Kelli said.   
"I'm SO hungry!" David whined.   
Kelli grumbled something under her breath and stood up. "Excuse me," she said.   
She jumped away from the table and over to a corner of the kitchen where light blue dish towel was set on the counter. She picked up the towel and tore off a pair square on the edge. Then, Kelli took a knife from the counter and cut five small holes in each square. She slid her fingers through the holes and wrapped the ends of the square around her hands, creating a small "glove" that left the tops of her fingers exposed for each hand.   
Then, she carefully used the knife and poked small holes in the ends of the gloves, and pulled her shoelaces out of her shoes. She wove the shoelaces through the holes, holding the gloves together and around her hands.   
Kelli sat back down at the table and used the gloves to create friction, which helped her to recover the spoon.   
"Ah, good soup," she said, as if nothing had happened.   
David turned redder every time Kelli made a slurping noise, and finally he got frustrated too.   
He walked over to the kitchen tool drawer and dug inside until he found a straw. He set it in the soup, and sucked up all of the broth.   
"Yes, good soup," he said.   
I sighed.   
Anju walked back into the kitchen. "All done?"   
"Yes, please!" we said all at once.   
"Me too," Link replied. "That was good soup."   
"Thank you," Anju said.   
"I'd best be going now," Link said. "Thank you for lunch."   
He dug in his pocket and set a red 20-Rupee piece on the table. Anju grinned and swept him a low bow.   
"Thank you for choosing Stock Pot Inn, have a nice day!"   
Link nodded and ran out the door.  
"C'mon, let's go!" David said, leaping up from his seat.  
"Ah, not so fast!" Anju said warningly. "That meal is going to cost you, y'know..."  
"Huh? Lady, if we had the money we would give it to you, but we're broke!" I said.   
"Well, let's think here..." Anju said, counting on her fingers as she talked. "Fresh Cucco like this one in the soup is at least a Rupee a pound, times three pounds is three Rupees. Water is at least 2 Rupees, and the vegetables..."  
Kelli stifled a scream of anger and dug into her pocket. She pulled out a single blue 5-piece Rupee and slammed it on the table.   
"Here, knock yourself out," she grunted.  
Anju picked up the Rupee and eyed it, then gave a bow. "Thank you for choosing Stock Pot Inn, have a nice day!"   
  
We raced out of the inn after Link, and as we ran David asked Kelli, "Where did you get that?"   
"I found in lying on the ground in North Clock Town this morning!" she said.   
We turned into South Clock Town just in time to see Link walk out the door to the city below a large sign with a strange green symbol carved on it. A single guard stood beneath the sign in front of the door.  
"Where does this doorway go?" I asked.   
"It goes to Termina field, in the direction of the Southern Swamp," the guard said crisply.   
"Well, can we get by?" asked David.   
"My orders are to not let anyone outside unless they are an adult or with an adult," he said.   
"That kid wasn't an adult." Kelli pointed out.   
"He had a sword."   
I shook my head and put my arm around the guard's shoulder. "Buddy, buddy, buddy... I've spent a total of three days in this town, and every single one of them has SUCKED! So you either get out of our way and let us pass, or we'll make sure that you'll never be able to sit down again,"   
The guard's eyes widened. "Oh, well then! I think that would be all right! Go on through, have a nice day, enjoy your visit to the Southern Swamp, home of the Deku Tribe!"   
We walked past the guard, but Kelli stopped. "D-Deku tribe?"  
"Yeah," said the guard. "They all live down there in the swamp. But uh, aren't you supposed to know that? I mean, being a scrub and all?"  
"I'm from out of town..." she said, her voice a little shaky.   
"Oh, Hyrule huh? Well don't worry, I'm sure that you'll have a nice time and get along with the king and his daughter."   
"Yeah, really nice time..." she muttered.   
"What's wrong?" asked David quietly.   
"I'm not really a scrub! I don't want to go to the Deku tribe's palace!" she hissed.   
"Why not?" I asked. "You could hop around on leaves, and hang out with all your scrubby friends."  
"I just know they're going to get all weird on me, like telling me the latest style to wear your leaves in and the latest news on wood disease prevention! It'll be awkward, get it?" she explained.   
"Well, there's no going back now," David said. "We got three days to turn back human, and there's no way out of it. We either turn back to normal... or we stay this way forever."   
"Were you trying to be reassuring?" I said nervously.  
"Yeah, I guess. Why?"  
"Because you did a very, VERY bad job!"   
  



	6. Trouble In The Southern Swamp

Majora: How It Really Happened  
By Galaxy Girl  
  
CHAPTER SIX: TROUBLE IN THE SWAMP  
(David's POV)  
  
DAWN OF THE FIRST DAY: 72 HOURS REMAIN  
  
"Ah, the wide open plains of Termina!" Erik said as we surveyed the land around us.   
"Lovely view. Too bad we're in too much of a hurry to watch it!" Kelli snapped.   
"The guard said that the swamp was straight this way!" I said, pointing to the direct south.  
"OK, let's get moving!" Erik replied.   
We started running to the south, when suddenly we saw what appeared to be a large blob of green jello with eyes sliming around the ground.   
"Ew, what is that?" Kelli shuddered.   
"Not sure. It looks like jelly," I commented.   
"Y'know, maybe we need a weapon or something," Erik said. "It might be dangerous..."  
"Jello? Dangerous? You're joking!" I said.   
I walked past the blob, and it jiggled about for a second. Then, it jumped straight up and onto my head.   
"AAAAAAAAACK! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"   
"EW! David, it's eating your head!" Kelli yelped.   
"DO SOMETHING!" I cried.   
"Me? What can I do?" she yelled.   
"Kelli, remember what Link did when he was a scrub? He blew a bubble! Can you do that?" Erik said quickly.  
"Well, let's see..."   
She made weird spit-like noise, and then a bubble popped out of her snout.   
"SWEET!" she said. "This is awesome!"   
"Could you aim one up here... BEFORE THE THING EATS MY HEAD?" I screamed.   
She did it again, and when the bubble hit the blob, it exploded, (the blob, that is) leaving me soaking wet with green slime.   
"EWWWWW!" I yelled.   
"What, no thank you?" Kelli whined.   
"Fine, thank you. Let's just get going before another one of those things eats my head!"   
  
After what seemed like hours, we finally reached the path that lead to the Southern Swamp.   
"Anyone see any signs of Link?" Erik asked.   
"Nope. No footprints, I'm close enough to the ground to know that for sure," Kelli reported.   
We turned around the corner to find a path lined with large Deku flowers.   
"You can tell we're getting close to the swamp. Look at all these flowers!" Erik observed.   
"What is that?" I said, pointing to a large red object floating above the path.  
"Looks like a balloon," Kelli said.   
"Let's pop it. I need to get my anger out," Erik said. He picked up a small pebble from the path and hurled it at the balloon.   
It hit the balloon, popping it and revealing a green object on the other side of the balloon. Suddenly, the green thing screamed and fell to the ground.   
"It's a man!" I cried.   
"Maybe he's seen Link!" Kelli said. "Let's go..."  
"FOREST FAIRY GIRL!" yelled the man.  
"Oh crap," Kelli sighed.   
Within seconds, Tingle had run over to Kelli and given her a great big hug just like before.   
"Oh, hi Tingle. So nice to see you," I said.   
"Hello Mr. Fairy. Tingle is drawing a map of the area. Do you want to buy a map?"  
"Sorry, no money," Erik said.   
"Hmm... that's OK! Tingle's father will be angry, but Tingle will give you a map for free!" Tingle beamed.   
"WOW! Thanks a lot Tingle!" Kelli said. She was not being sarcastic.  
"Now, which one? Do you want the Woodfall Map, or the Snowhead Map?"   
"We'll take Woodfall," I said.   
"Ah yes! Woodfall! Nice place, that."  
Tingle handed Kelli a slip of paper with sketchy lines all over it, and she eyed it.   
"Thank you Tingle," Erik said.   
"Do you have to go, or do you want to sing with Tingle for a while?"   
"Um... we'd better go," Kelli said quickly.   
"Oh, OK. Bye-bye Forest Fairy Girl! Tingle, tingle, Koo-loo Limpah!"   
Tingle reached into his backpack and inflated another balloon, which sent him back into the air.   
Kelli handed me the map as we walked back towards the swamp. "That man has problems..."   
"Look at this map! It's terrible!" I whined.   
"Well, it'll have to do. It was free after all." Erik pointed out.   
  
We took a right at a fork in the path ahead, and found ourselves in the Southern Swamp. Ahead of us was a huge building on stilts with a boat parked beneath it.   
"Where could that kid have gone?" Erik pondered.   
"There he is!" Kelli cried, pointing beneath the ladder that led up to the building.  
Sure enough, Link stood beneath it, holding a strange looking mask. He put it on, and was surrounded by a blue light.  
Then, the blue light faded to reveal a Deku scrub standing in his place!  
"So that's why we couldn't find him!" I said.  
"Why?" Erik asked.   
"He uses that mask to turn from a scrub to a human and back again!" Kelli cut in. "So we need to look for a scrub AND a boy!"   
"Crap," Erik said.   
The scrub took off down the river, hopping from lily pad to lily pad.   
We ran over to where he had started on the pads.   
"OK, no problem," Kelli said. She hopped across the water's surface to the first lily pad.   
"Huh?" I said. I pointed to a sign next to the shore.   
"Warning: Poison Water. Do NOT Enter!" Erik read.   
"Uh oh!" Kelli said. "You guys can't fit on a lily pad... Hey, do you think we could use that boat over there?"   
"Let's go check in that building!" I suggested.  
  
After a few minutes, (and after Erik crashed down off of the ladder several times) we finally entered the building on stilts.   
Inside, behind the counter sat a gruff-look man in a dirty shirt listening to a walkman.   
"Where is that boy of mine?" he said to himself. "That guy has no business looking for fairies at his age!"   
"Excuse me, but is your son perhaps named... Tingle?" Erik asked.   
"Yeah, ya know him?"  
"Your son needs psychological help," Kelli said.   
"You noticed too?" the man chuckled.   
"Sure. Uh, anyway, we wanted to know if we could borrow that boat down there." I told the man.   
"Oh, we run a boat cruise business. But the woman who sells tickets is gone right now, off to visit her sister down the river I suppose."  
"Well, could we borrow the boat anyway?" Kelli queried.  
"I suppose, but be careful!" the man warned. "And see what Koume is doin' over there anyway! She's been gone for almost four hours!"   
"All right, thank you very much," I said.  
"Oh, and no going to the right at the fork in the road ahead. That's where the cruise goes, and I can't let you go there without paying."   
"What? We're steering the boat bucko. We're going wherever we want!" Erik protested.   
"I think not," the man said, holding up a small TV monitor and a small remote control.  
"So?" I said.   
"This," he said, indicating the monitor, "Is the thing I use to check and see where the boat has gone and this is the remote control for the bomb I will use to destroy the boat if I see it turn right without you paying!"   
"You would blow up your own boat just to make a 15 Rupee profit?" Kelli gasped in disbelief.  
"Yes."   
"OOOOOK... let's go see where Koume has gone!" I said quickly.  
  
We crashed (literally) back down the ladder and packed into the tiny boat."This thing is tiny!" Erik whined.   
"Looks big enough to me!" Kelli said.   
"Well, that's cause you're 2 feet tall!" I told her.   
Kelli settled into the front of the boat. "I'll navigate," she said.   
Erik slowly got into the boat and patted the back. "You can sit here, David,"   
"Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically. I squeezed past Erik and set my hand on the rudder beam to steer.   
"OK, start rowing Erik!" I ordered.   
"Aye-aye Cap'n!" he said in a weird voice. Then, he started rowing.   
As soon as we had started we crashed into one of the stilts, splintering it.   
"Um, maybe you shouldn't row that hard," Kelli said.   
"Oops. Guess I don't know my own strength."   
Erik began to row more slowly. Even then, we were going as fast as a human rowing at their fastest.   
"I hate this body..." Erik muttered.   
"Don't worry," Kelli said cheerfully. "We can find Link, turn back to normal, and then we can go home."   
"Go home? I don't think so," I said.   
"What? What do you mean?" Erik asked.   
"Well, we came all the way to Termina to find a library book. It would be a shame if we left without getting it," I explained.   
Kelli turned around from the front of the boat. "What did you just say? Are you CRAZY?"   
"Kelli, we are librarians. It is our only duty to uphold the righteousness of the public library, to watch over the books like they are our children, and to bring down the scum who think that they can get a free extra day of book ownership."  
"DAVID! Right now, we are not librarians! We are a Deku, a Goron, and a Zora who are trying to rid ourselves of a curse!" Erik said in disbelief.  
"Oh FINE! I won't even bring up library stuff until we're back to normal." I whined. "Just be quiet and row!"   
After what seemed like hours of silence, we saw a sign at a fork in the river that pointed to the left.   
"Magic Hags Potion Shop Just Ahead," it said.   
"I think this is our turn off," Erik said.   
I moved the rudder, and we slowly moved to the left.  
"Well this place has a lovely smell," I said.   
"I can't tell, I have no nose," Kelli laughed.   
"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Erik asked.   
"No... it was either say something semi-funny or burst out crying," she sobbed.   
"Oh Kelli... Do you want us to..." I said.   
"No, I'm OK. Just a little worried," she said. "But who wouldn't be worried at a time like this?"   
  
We parked the boat at the beginning of a small island. In the center of the island was a large house on stilts that looked somewhat like a teapot with doors and windows.   
"Well, this Termina place certainly has interesting architecture," I said.   
"Oh no! Not another ladder!" Erik moaned.   
"Tie the rope off," Kelli said as she hopped out of the boat and onto the shore.   
I did so, and we walked up to the ladder.   
"Hoo boy..." Erik muttered. "I'd better go first,"   
He slowly stepped up onto the first rung and climbed slowly up to about the center.   
"Here I come up behind you," Kelli called.   
She started up the ladder, and Erik suddenly froze.   
"What is it?" I asked.   
"I... The ladder just made a noise!" he squeaked.   
"Whoa, keep going! Hurry!" Kelli said quickly.   
"I'm slipping!"   
"No, no... it's just in your head Erik!" I called.   
"No it's not... I'm falling!" Erik squealed. "AAAAAAAA!"   
He kept screaming for quite a while. Finally, he opened his eyes and peeped out, "Am I on the ground yet?"   
"Erik... you're still on the ladder!" Kelli yelled.   
"Don't... make... any... sudden... noises..." Erik moaned. "I... just... might fall!"  
I was getting impatient. "Erik, you aren't going to fall, now..."  
SPLAT!  
  
"Ow, Kelli get off of me!" I whined.   
"Tell Erik to get off of me!" she retorted.   
"Told you..."   
I pushed Erik off of Kelli with my one free hand and stood up.   
"You two make me NUTS!" I yelled.   
"Hello? Is anyone out there? I heard a crash!" a high voice came from inside the house.   
An old woman with pasty green skin in an ornate black robe decorated with blue designs leaned her head over the edge of the platform. She had a large blue jewel held onto her forehead by some invisible headband and silvery hair that stuck out from under a small white turban.  
"Oh hello! Are you here for potions?" called the woman.   
"We actually need some help getting up there!" Kelli yelled back.   
"Oh, no problem!" she said. "Stand close together, and step back a few feet!"   
We did so.   
"OK... hold on!" she yelled.   
She waved her hands around, and blue smoke began to form around our feet.   
"Wow, sweet!" Erik said.  
Suddenly, a huge blue cloud puffed around us, and when it faded, we found ourselves up on the roof of the house.   
"Um... whoops," the woman sighed. "I gotta work on that one. Well, come on down and come on in!"   
  
Once inside, the woman swept a tiny bow and spoke. "I am Kotake, keeper of the Magic Hags Potion Shop! Welcome, what can I get for you?"  
"We were sent by the guy down the river," Erik explained. "We're looking for someone named Koume."   
"Ya know her?" Kelli added.   
"Know her? Of course I know her! She's my sister!" Kotake laughed, a shrill annoying sound.   
"Oh." I said.  
"I can't believe you didn't know that! Koume and I are the famous Twinrova Sisters of Hyrule!" Kotake said, holding up a broom as if that was going to help us.   
"You're sorceresses?" I said hopefully.   
"Well, I'm the Sorceress of Ice, and Koume is the Sorceress of Fire. Together we can do pretty much anything!"   
"Where is Koume anyway?" Erik asked.   
"To tell you the truth, I don't know. I sent her to the Woods of Mystery about 2 hours ago to find me some mushrooms to make potions. But she hasn't been back yet!" Kotake said worriedly.   
"We can go find her if you want," Kelli suggested.   
"Oh, would you? If she's hurt or lost I'll just die! But if she's just stalling..." Kotake pondered. "OK, if she's hurt or lost and you find her I promise I'll do something for you! Here, take this potion with you in case she's hurt!"   
"What if she isn't hurt?" asked Erik.  
"Then you can keep it. There was this one bratty kid earlier, but he said he couldn't find her in the Woods. Stupid fool."  
"What did he look like?" I asked quickly.  
"Small, with green clothes and a little fairy following him,"   
"Great!" Kelli said. "We'll go find Koume for you!"   
  
"Kelli, what are you talking about?" I hissed as we touched the ground in front of the ladder. "We don't have time to find Koume! We gotta go find Link before he gets too far away!"  
"David, don't you see?" she cried. "According to Kotake, together with Koume they can 'do pretty much anything'! That includes reversing the curse!"   
I gasped. "Of course! We may not even need to find Link!"   
"HEEEEEELP!" we heard from the top of the ladder.   
We looked up to see Erik clinging to the railing of the balcony.   
"Erik, just come down!" Kelli sighed.   
Erik stepped back, took a deep breath, and curled up into a ball. Then, he rolled forward and crashed to the ground.   
"I'm OOOOOK!" Erik mumbled as he stood up.   
"Come on, the entrance to the Woods of Mystery is over there!" Kelli said.   
"I can swim, Kelli can hop, and Erik can roll," I said.   
Erik curled up and rolled over, leaping across the gap. Kelli hopped across the surface, and I swam quickly across.   
"Here goes nothing," I remarked, and we entered the Woods of Mystery.  
  
The Woods were a dense place, and four small paths that led in all the compass directions led through tree tunnels. We had entered through the south. "Which way do we go?" Erik said.   
Suddenly, we heard a small squeak. A tiny monkey with white fur appeared out of a bush and walked up to Kelli curiously.   
The monkey made a few shrill squeaking noises and Kelli gasped.   
She answered back with some more squeaks.  
"He speaks Deku!" she said excitedly.  
"I didn't know you could!" I answered.   
She listened to the monkey for a few minutes, and Erik leaned over to me. "David... she's talking to the monkeys again!"   
"He says to follow him!" she said, racing off after the monkey to a tree path to the north.   
"Kelli, wait up!" I yelled after her.   
We followed Kelli and the monkey for three paths, when we saw a huge ugly turtle standing in front of one of the paths.   
"What is that?" Erik yelped.   
The turtle saw us, made a strange noise and rolled up in its shell, then charged at us as fast as it could.   
"YIKES!" we screamed.   
I dodged the flying turtle and pointed to the path to the right. "The monkey's getting away!"   
We quickly leaped out of the way of the turtle and raced after him.   
Several turtles and paths later, we heard a low moan through the trees coming from a north path.   
"Hurry!" Kelli said, and she ducked through the north path.  
Lying facedown on the ground in the center of the clearing was an old woman who looked just like Kotake in every way, with the exception of a red jewel on her forehead and red markings on her robe.  
"Oh man!" she moaned. "Stupid Skullkid!"   
I ran over and rolled her over on her back.   
"Who are you?" the woman snapped. "Are you with that Skull Brat?"   
"No," Kelli said.   
"Oh good. Well, whaddya starin' at? Help an old woman up!"   
Erik helped her onto her feet, but she leaned back and fell back over immediately.   
"OOF!" she grunted. "Oh... I don't have enough energy to get outta here!"  
"Are you Koume?" Kelli asked quickly.  
"Yeah. How did you know?"   
"We just know. Now, what happened to you?" I asked.   
"I was gathering herbs for my sister- she runs a potion shop y'know... and then this bratty kid comes up and rabbit punches me in the neck!" Koume whined.   
"How mean!" Erik said.   
"OW... Hey, you're young, you have energy. Run back to the potion shop outside the Woods and tell Kotake what happened. And bring back a potion, will ya?"   
"We have one!" I said, pulling out the blood-red bottle.   
"OOH! Thank you so much, you kind young ones!"   
Koume uncorked the bottle and drank the potion down all in one gulp. "YES! Koume is revived!"   
Then, she stood up and adjusted her white turban. "Thank you very much, you wonderful children! How did you know I was here?"   
"Kotake sent us. That's why we had the potion," Kelli explained.   
"Well now. Is there anything I can do for you?"   
"Kotake said she'd reward us if we found you." Erik told her.   
"OK. I'll give ya a lift back to the potion shop, and I'll see what Kotake and I can fix up for ya."   
Koume threw her hands up, and a broom appeared beneath her, just like the one Kotake had shown us. Then, she mounted the broom and snapped her fingers.   
As if by magic, her turban disappeared and her silvery hair was transformed into a blazing fire. The broom also ignited, but the flames didn't appear to burn the wood.   
"Come on, hop on."   
We gasped and took a step backwards.  
"Whaddya scared of? I won't bite. I'm not the kind of witch who eats children!"   
Kelli shrugged, closed her eyes, and hopped onto the broom behind Koume. "Hey, these flames don't even burn at all!"   
"Course not. Did you actually think I'd light my broom on fire on purpose?" Koume chuckled. "These kinda brooms are expensive."   
Erik and I joined her on the broom, and Koume shouted, "BROOM HO!"   
We didn't move an inch.   
"Wowee, you guys are heavy for such small kids!" Koume said. "No problem."  
She snapped her fingers, and the broom flew up into the air and over the dense trees.   
"WOOOOOHOOOOOO!" I yelled.   
"Ouch! Hey Scrub, would ya mind not squeezing me so hard?" Koume snapped. "I can't control the broom,"   
"I'm scared out of my mind!" Kelli wailed.   
"Calm down, you can't fall off of a broom!"   
Koume leaned heavily to the left, and Kelli screamed bloody murder. We turned away from smacking into a tall tree, and when we came out from behind it, Kelli was on Erik's head.  
"A little jumpy today, are we Kelli?" Erik chuckled, yanking her off of his head.   
  
To make a very long story short, we landed on the balcony of the Magic Hags Potion Shop several minutes later.   
"All aboard!" Koume laughed. Then, she snapped her fingers and the broom vanished.   
Koume threw open the door and rushed inside. "Kotake, I'm back!"  
"Oh Koume! I'm glad you're OK," Kotake said. "Did you get the mushrooms I asked for?"  
"MUSHROOMS?" Koume yelled. "You asked for herbs!"   
"I did NOT!" Kotake howled. "I would know what I asked you for!"   
"I swear, you said herbs Kotake," Koume said. "You must be getting senile."  
"SENILE?" Kotake screamed. "IS THAT HOW YOU TREAT YOUR BIG SISTER?"  
"How can you be older? We're TWINS!" Koume shouted back.   
They continued arguing and yelling random cuss words until I decided to interrupt.  
"Um... ladies? Could we get started here?"  
"Oh yes," Koume said.   
"Thank you children. Now, what can I do for you?" Kotake asked.  
"AHEM!" Koume hissed. "Me too. Let's give them our ad, Kotake."  
"Oh, OK Koume."   
Koume nodded. "Hold on for a sec. We need to advertise for you before we reward you!"   
I shrugged at Erik and Kelli, and Koume and Kotake both snapped their fingers. They disappeared into two clouds of red and blue smoke. Then, all the lights in the shop went out and slow guitar music began to play.  
"We are the visions you see in your nightmares!" Koume said eerily, rising up from below the counter and onto the counter.  
"We are the illusion of your wildest dreams!" Kotake added, appearing next to her.   
Koume spun around and faced us. "With my flame, I will burn you to the bone!"   
Kotake joined her. "With my frost I will freeze you to your soul!"   
"TWINROVA SISTERS!" they both cried.  
They both let out a hideous laugh and disappeared again, appearing behind us in front of the door.   
"How was it?" they both said at once.   
"Um, impressive," Kelli groaned.  
"Well, what can we do for you?" Koume asked.   
"Do you have some enemies we can turn into frogs for you?" Kotake said eagerly.  
"Any special ladies or gentlemen you'd like to be in love with you?" Koume added dreamily.  
"Any ailments that... um... ail you?" Kotake continued.  
"Any power you'd like to have bestowed? We can do that too!" Koume finished.   
"Well actually..." Erik started.   
"HMMMM?" they both hummed.   
"What would you say if we told you that we are not a Deku Scrub, a Goron, and a Zora?" I said.   
"I'd say you need us to fix up your brain power!" Kotake giggled.  
"He's telling the truth!" Kelli said, leaping up onto the counter.   
The Twinrova Sisters looked at each other and raised an eyebrow each.   
"Do tell," they chimed.   
"It's Skullkid," Erik said. "He turned us from normal, ordinary Hylians to these things!"   
"And worse, if we don't turn back by midnight of the eve of the Carnival of Time, we'll stay this way forever!" I wailed.   
"Oh, that little brat Skullkid? Hmmph," Koume snarled. "How I hate him!"   
"I suppose we could help you with your curse," Kotake pondered. "What's the name of it?"  
"Spirit something," Kelli answered.   
"Let's look in our book!" Koume said, snapping her fingers.   
She walked over to the counter and pushed Kelli off, then started digging in a huge stack of books set behind the counter.   
"Here it is!" Kotake said, lifting a thick book off of the bookshelf.   
She set it on the counter. "The Big Book of Curses" it said on the side.   
Koume opened up the book and gasped, quickly shutting it.  
"What?" asked Kotake.  
She opened the book and slammed it shut again. "Well THAT was uncalled for!"   
"Wrong book!" Koume giggled, tucking it back on the bookshelf.   
"Wrong meaning of the word 'curse'!" Kotake added.   
  
Almost a half an hour later, Kotake found a book six inches thick entitled "The Big Book of Magic Curses" at the very bottom of the stack.   
Koume laid it out on the counter as before and opened up the book. "Hmmm... Spirit, spirit... spirit... Hmmm..."  
Kotake read off the curses as they passed them.   
"Skin disease... skin wounds... skin rot... spleen pain..."  
"Ya passed it!" Koume shouted.   
"Oh, OK... spores... spooks... here we are! Spirit."   
"What's the name of the curse?" Koume asked. "We have Spirit, Haunted... Spirit, Condemned... Spirit, Cursed... Spirit, Consummation..."  
"THAT'S IT!" we yelled.   
"Aha! Spirit Consummation..." Kotake read out of the book.   
  
"'The Spirit Consummation Curse shall change the shape of a forlorn soul and trap them in the body of another... yada, yada, yada... If the soul is not freed within a set span of time, the soul shall remain trapped forever... Spirit of the transformed body shall overcome their own spirit...'"  
"Could we skip the gory details?" Kelli whined.   
"Hey, who's the witch here?" Koume and Kotake both snapped together.   
Koume continued the reading. "'The cure for the Spirit Consummation curse could be one of any of the following...   
- To play the Song of Healing and heal the forlorn soul  
- To destroy the cursed body *  
- To reverse the effects of the spell with a counter spell  
- To hold a séance to transfer the tormented soul back to its own world*  
- To administer a potion of Keese's Wing'"  
  
"YES!" Erik yelled. "Do you have a Keese Wing Potion?"   
"We do," Kotake said.   
"But it's a funny thing!" Koume said. "Some of the time, Keese Wing Potion will help you, but the other 99.9% of the time, they cause all of your organs to melt and your brain to explode!"   
"Gulp..." I said.   
"Hold it!" Kelli said. "This book is describing the cure for a forlorn soul! Like a Poe or a ghost! We aren't forlorn!"   
"Oh, but you must be," Kotake said. "The Skullkid cannot use this curse on anyone who is not forlorn!"   
"Everyone who he has transformed so far," Koume began, "Has had some emotional stress of some sort in the last 24 hours of their lives!"   
"But we..." I began. Then I remembered. We HAD been forlorn...  
Hours before we had left Hyrule a day earlier, Erik had had a falling-out with his mother. I had been mourning the death of my grandmother several months earlier, and Kelli was upset about her sister getting a bad fever.   
"Well, we don't know the Song of Healing," Kotake said. "So I suppose we could try a counter spell!"   
"OOOH! Kotake! There is a counter spell for the curse written right below it!" Koume squealed.   
"How about it? You guys wanna let us try the counter spell?" Kotake asked.   
I stared at the others. Kelli gave a weak nod. Erik said quietly, "Yes."  
"We'll try it," I said.   
"Good. Stand back there please," Koume said, pointing to the door.  
We stepped a few steps back and took a deep breath.  
Could this be the end of our adventure in these bodies?  
  
  
  
  
  



	7. Deku Palace Disaster!

Majora: How it Really Happened!  
  
  
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE CURSE BROKEN? -Or- THE DEKU PALACE DISASTER  
(Erik's POV)  
  
"Stand back over there by the counter, please," Kotake said.   
I took a deep breath and sighed. Could this be it?  
"Erik, you're shaking!" David said.  
"Huh? Oh, just nervous," I replied.  
"Is this good?" Kelli asked.  
"Fine, thanks," Koume said.   
"OK, Koume. Let's get started!" Kotake suggested.   
"Fine, Kotake."   
The two witches stood behind the potion counter and scrolled down the page.   
"Hold onto your hats!" they both screamed.   
Then, the two witches waved their hands around, and said a strange chant. Purple smoke appeared near our feet and swirled around.   
"COUGH! COUGH!" we all hacked.   
Then everything kind of went blank. I could sense what was going on, but I couldn't really tell where I was. I could still hear a garbled coughing next to me, David perhaps? Maybe Kelli...  
  
Suddenly, the smoke faded and I looked around. Koume and Kotake had shocked faces, like something had happened.   
"WE DID IT!" they both shouted, and they began dancing around.  
"You did?" Kelli cried.   
I looked down to my left quickly. A small Deku scrub was jumping around.   
"WHAAAAA?" I said. I looked to the right. David, as a Zora was there.  
I looked at my hands. A Goron.  
"What are you talking about?" I cried. "You didn't do anything! I'm still a Goron!"   
"And I'm still a TWO FOOT TALL PIECE OF WOOD!" Kelli screamed.  
"Huh? Well, yeah," Koume said. "We just cured your curse,"  
"No you didn't!" David said.   
"Yes we did, you fools!" Kotake cried. "Look at your eyes!"  
I looked at David's. They looked the same as they had the very first time I had seen him as a Zora.  
"So?" we all echoed.  
"We cured your curse! So, no matter how long it takes you to turn back to humans, you'll stay just as human as you are now. No losing your memories, no eating rocks or worms, and no losing your English ability!" Koume explained.   
We stared at the twins blankly for several minutes. David was the first to speak.  
"And I suppose we should be grateful for that?"   
"Well, yeah." Kotake said.  
"Oh, thanks a lot!" Kelli shouted.  
"What? If you're going to be sarcastic, then..." Kotake began.  
"NO! I mean it!" Kelli said. "This is a lot better!"  
"Well, um..." I started.   
"What, are you disappointed?" Koume asked worriedly.  
"We kinda wanted to turn back into humans!" I explained.  
"Oh." Koume and Kotake said.   
"Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?" Kotake laughed.   
"Let's look it up!" Koume suggested.   
The witches turned to the "T" page for transformation.   
"Let's see... Tetanus... Tight clothes... Terrible... Terrible breath... Terrible looks... Ah, Transformation!" Kotake read.  
"Oh dear," Koume said.   
"What?" David asked worriedly.   
"Oh, nothing. It's just a general transformation spell, no real specific anything," Koume remarked.   
"Gee, Koume!" Kotake said. "Y'know... we'd better think twice before trying this... our last few attempts didn't turn out too good..."  
"That's right..." Koume pondered. "I mean, I don't suppose there's anything much worse than being turned completely inside out..."  
None of us could stop ourselves from half-screaming.  
"Er, maybe we'd better not even try..." David started.  
"Maybe we should try it out on someone first!" I suggested jokingly. I was looking straight at Kelli.  
"Good idea! We'll try it on you," Kotake cried.  
"HUH? ME? WHY ME?" I yelped.   
"Because, it WAS your idea!" Koume said, as if she was stating the obvious. "And besides, it's easier to change a Goron into a human than anything else. You practically are human, aside from the fact you eat rocks and you roll down cliffs!"   
I groaned reluctantly as Kotake leaped over the counter and pulled on my arm.   
"Come on! Over here!" she said.   
David and Kelli ran behind the counter and Koume pulled up some stools for them.   
Kelli was actually too short to see over the desk, so she hopped onto its surface and took a seat next to the spell book.  
Meanwhile, Kotake was taking measurements, and believe me, it's HARD to hold two 50 pound arms up in the air for over 5 seconds.   
"Let's see... chest, 68 inches," chuckled Kotake. "Waist 53... All right Koume, let's get started!"   
Koume read a line out of the book out loud, and then her hands started to glow red. "SWEET!" she shouted. "OK, hold onto your butt!"   
"Good luck, Erik!" Kelli called.  
"Yeah, nice knowing ya!" David laughed.  
She snapped her fingers, and I was surrounded by red smoke. A feeling like that of a strong static shock ran through me, and when the smoke cleared, I was taller and lighter.  
"WOW! Am I..."  
I looked at my hands. Blue, scaly, and fins attached.   
"Um, I'm a Zora..." I said.  
"Hey, looking good!" David said.   
"Let's try again!" Kotake said.   
Koume snapped her fingers, and the same thing happened. This time, I was MUCH smaller. Kotake's nearby foot looked like a giant building.  
"HEY!" I screamed. "WHERE DID EVERYONE GO?"  
"Oops," Kotake said, looking at me with her huge eyes, even larger in my condition. "You turned him into a termite!"   
Koume snapped her fingers again. This time, I was taller, but also down on all fours.   
Kelli burst out laughing. "Hey David, I'd say he looks a little more like how he usually acts!"  
I looked down and saw hooves. I was a donkey.   
"Haha. Very funny. Haha, it is to laugh," I groaned.   
After a couple more snaps, I had ended up as a Deku scrub, a frog, a pig, and finally a duck.  
"Ooh, a duck!" I said, a little more sarcastically than I had meant to. "Maybe I can go out and play in the swamp!"   
"Shut up and stop moving around!" Koume said. She snapped again.  
I was tall. I was light. I looked at my hands. HUMAN SKIN! I WAS ME AGAIN!  
"No, no! Koume, stop!" I screamed. "I'm..."  
POOF!  
I shrunk again, into a mouse.   
"Uh... whoops," Koume said.   
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOHOHOHOOOOOOO!" I cried. "I WAS THAT CLOSE! WAAAAAAAAA!"   
"Quick! Do it again!" Kelli and David yelled.   
"I can't!" Koume cried. "There's no real clarification on the specifics of how to turn something human! I'll just have to keep changing you until you turn human again!"   
"Well... All right," I said. "How long could it take?"  
  
NIGHT OF THE FIRST DAY: 60 HOURS REMAIN  
  
"HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?" Kotake whined. "6 hours? And you still haven't turned him human again!"   
"I'm trying, OK?" Koume said.   
"Well, it shouldn't be long now!" Kelli said hopefully.   
"Come on... just snap your fingers again!" I yelled.   
Koume did so, and I was in a familiar large heavy body.   
"I'M A GORON AGAIN! YIPEEE!" I screamed.  
"Good! Now only a few more times!" David cried.   
Koume snapped her fingers seven times, and finally! I was human again!   
"STOP! STOP!" I cried. "OK... That's better!"  
I reached into my pocket. My map, my money... everything was there! I pulled out my map and looked over it happily. My clothes were normal, and my face looked like it always did in the mirror in the back of the shop.   
"PHEW!" I said happily. "At least that's over!"  
"Um... kid?" Kotake mumbled.   
"Yeah?"   
"Something's wrong!" she shouted.  
I looked down. The same strange waves that we had seen Skullkid use to trigger the fall of the moon were surrounding me.   
"Huh? What's going on?" I asked.   
"Erik, hold still!" David cried. "What if..."  
But before I could say anything, I was hit with an extreme pain in my head. I dropped the map in surprise.  
"Erik! Erik, are you OK?" Kelli cried.   
But I hardly heard her. I yelled in pain and fell over.   
  
It was the same dream I had had at the very beginning of all this madness.   
Screaming... falling... falling down a long tunnel... Gorons! They're all around me! I run... I run... but now... I trip, and I wake up.   
I opened my eyes. Kotake, Koume, Kelli and David were all staring at me with shocked looks on their faces.   
"Oh my dear three golden Goddesses of Hyrule!" Kotake and Koume screamed at once.   
"Erik! You're... You're..." Kelli and David cried.  
I sat up and moaned.   
"I'm a Goron again!" I cried.   
I let out a scream of frustration and threw myself on the ground, shaking the cottage.   
"My gracious!" Kotake said. "That Skullkid... He... he's immensely powerful to be able to do this!"  
"I'm sorry, child..." Koume apologized. "Even we haven't the power to undo this!"   
I wailed and banged my head into the floor. Kelli and David stood up and kneeled next to me.   
Kelli was dismayed. "There isn't anything you can do?"   
"I'm sorry, no." Kotake said.   
David sighed. "Thanks anyway."  
"Well, can't say we didn't try!" Koume sighed.   
"Is that it? Aren't we going to try again?" I said desperately.  
"The same thing would happen!" Kelli said. "And besides, I'm not waiting another four hours."   
"Hmm... if only that child Link was here!" Kotake pondered. "Then he could play that powerful song..."  
"I heard him saying he was going to the Deku Palace," Koume said.   
"Deku Palace? Come on, let's go!" I said, snapping out of it immediately.   
"But... there's no way for you to get there without a boat!" Kotake said.   
"OF COURSE!" Koume cried. "I work at the boat cruise dock! I could loan you a boat!"   
"Really?" David said happily. "Are you sure?"   
"It's the least I could do for you, you poor children!" Koume said.   
"It really means a lot to us!" Kelli said.   
  
Outside the cottage, Koume and Kotake helped me to reach the bottom of the ladder. David untied the boat, and we all hopped in.  
"Thanks again, you two!" I called.   
"Don't mention it!" Kotake said.   
"Goodbye kids!" Koume cried. "Good luck! And remember..."  
"Should you ever need some magic help anywhere in the world..." Kotake began.  
"CALL THE TWINROVA SISTERS! WE'RE YOUR GIRLS!" they both cried. Then, they burst into giggles.   
"Those were the weirdest old ladies I have ever seen!" David said, shaking his head as we rode away.   
"Calm down!" Kelli said. "Gee, it's not like they'll ever come to Hyrule or anything."  
"I don't know..." David said. "They just seem kind of... weird."   
"Don't be ridiculous David!" I said. "They're just a couple of sweet old ladies. They're not raising any evil children bent on taking over the world, or anything like that!"   
  
After about fifteen minutes, we had turned into an unfamiliar section of the swamp. There were large red palm trees all around, and a huge tree-like tower was just to our right. A thick cloud of gray smoke was set in a ring above it.   
"That must be Woodfall," Kelli said, pointing to the many waterfalls that streamed down its side.   
"Very nice," I murmured. "Now, where is that Deku Palace?"  
David pointed to a dock set next to a tunnel that went through a tree, and we tied up the boat and went through the tunnel.  
  
"WOW!" we all cried as we came out. In front of us was a huge castle, entirely made out of trees. The turrets, the bridges, everything was wood! Two large Deku Flowers were set near the door to the castle, and we could hear the melody of some strange kind of pipes there.   
"Let's go," David said, stepping onto the narrow bridge. Actually, it was pretty wide for Kelli, but the way it creaked and groaned under my weight, I was a little uneasy.  
When we reached the other side, two Deku scrubs, much larger than Kelli, popped out of the flowers and stared us in the face.   
"(SQUEAK!) I've never seen you around here, young Deku child!" one of them said.  
"Well, I'm from out of town," Kelli said coolly.  
"(EEEEEP!) In that case, you have no business here! This is the palace of the great Deku King! It's no place for outsiders! (SQUEAK!)"  
"Oh, (squeak) I'm just coming to pay my respects to the great king!" Kelli said, attempting to mimic their squeaky way of talking that she had been so good at when she had lost her English.  
"Hmmm... Well, I suppose you (HEEEEP!) can visit the royal chamber... And to see that fool monkey!"   
The two Deku guards stood out of their flowers and motioned down a long corridor into a dark room.   
"THAT (SQUEAK!) is the King's royal chamber. Do not enter any other areas whatsoever!"   
Then, they stepped to one side and Kelli passed through the door.  
David and I nodded and started to walk after her, when the two guards leaped in front of us.   
"HALT! (EEEEEP!) Where do you think you're going?" the first guard snapped.  
"Oh, oh, they're with me!" Kelli said, quickly rushing to our rescue.  
"I TOLD YOU!" the second guard said. "This is no place for outsiders! This Palace is for Deku and diplomatic sentries ONLY!"   
"We are diplomats!" David said quickly.  
"A ZORA diplomat? I don't think so!" the first guard said icily.   
"And how did you, a GORON get through the swamp?" the other guard said suspiciously.  
"I don't think they're (EEEEP!) diplomats at all! Access denied! The girl scrub may go, but you two have to stay!" they both said at once.  
Kelli sighed and crossed her arms.   
"Look boys... I've been here in Termina for THREE DAYS already... and I kid you not, all three of those days have SUCKED big time! And I am NOT in the mood to screw around right now! So you either let me and those guys through RIGHT NOW... or I will TEAR EVERY SINGLE LEAF OFF OF THAT TINY WOODEN HEAD OF YOURS!"  
The guards looked at each other.  
"Well! That's quite different!" the first guard said crisply.  
"Go right on ahead! I'm sure the King will welcome a visit from another race or two!" the second one said quickly.  
"ENJOY YOUR STAY!" they cried, then they popped back into their flowers.  
Kelli clapped her hands and made a gesture.   
"Please, walk this way!"   
  
Upon entering the throne room, we found a group of Deku Scrubs crowded around a large scrub on a platform. He had a huge bulbous... um, bulb on his back, and held a large scepter.   
"That monkey is a traitor to the Deku Empire! He has kidnapped our sweet tiny princess and taken her away where we will never seen her again!" the King cried.  
"Yeah! (SQUEAK!) Boil him in oil!" the other scrubs cried.   
The King continued. "That monkey has taken our dear beautiful little princess and who knows what he has done with her? Pulled off her leaves? Carved her with a knife? Even..."  
The scrubs sat up in anticipation.  
"Even set her on fire!"   
The scrubs screamed and shuddered at the awful possibilities, and a terrified squeak was heard from the left side of the room.  
"No! No! I didn't so anything! I SWEAR!" a monkey (who was obviously 'the traitor') yelled. He was tied to a pole with strong rope, and a pot with hot oil was burning in a fire pit in the center of the room. "The princess is safe! I know it! I didn't set her on fire or anything!"  
"Then where is she, you stupid monkey?" the King cried.  
"We went into the Woodfall Temple! She led me there, and then a monster came and..."   
"AHA!" the King screamed, as if he had gotten an amazing idea. "Only Deku Royalty can enter the sunken temple at the top of the waterfall! You obviously captured our sweet young princess, and used her to learn the ancient melody that opens the temple so you could steal the ancient Deku secrets inside! Then you ATE HER!"   
"ATE HER? I would never! The princess told me about the temple and..."   
"I have heard enough!" the King cried. "Quickly! Get that cauldron ready!"   
We looked around the room for a scrub that looked at all like Link in his Deku form.   
"WHAT? Who are you? What are you doing in our palace with those... those things?" the King cried, pointing a finger at Kelli.  
"Your highness, I was let in!" she said. "So were these two things!" she said, pointing at us.   
"What are you doing here?" the King shot back.   
"I... uh... I... I came to see that awful monkey who kidnapped our princess!" she screamed, suddenly enthusiastic.   
"YES SISTER!" a young Deku screamed from the corner.   
"And what are THEY doing here?" asked the King angrily. I knew he meant us.   
"Well, uh... They're with me!" Kelli said, trying to explain.  
"So you brought them in?" the King asked.   
"Well... yeah?" Kelli squeaked.   
"GUARDS! Get those things out of my palace this instant!" the Deku King ordered. "And throw that young Deku girl in there with the monkey! She is trying to lie to us!"  
"WHAT?" Kelli cried as two Deku guards grabbed her. "I..."  
"You know the rules! No other races in MY palace! We'll punish you later!" the King said. "More than likely you are in with that awful monkey, and you helped him kidnap my darling princess!"   
"AAAAAAAAAACCK!" she screamed, as they dragged her across the room.  
"KELLI!" David cried. But we were being ushered towards the door by a group of scrubs.   
"GRRRRR! Let me go!" I yelled, pushing the small wooden creatures away from me.   
"OUCH! His body is like that of a stone!" one of the scrubs cried.  
"And this one is as slippery as the skin of a fish!" another said of David.  
"I don't care. Just get them out, and put that girl in my dungeon with the monkey!" the King cried.   
And before we knew it, we were outside the palace, and the two guards up front had stood up blocking us again.   
"HAHAHA! (SQUEAK!) I told you that you weren't allowed in!" one shouted.   
"HAHAHA! And this time, that (HEEEEP!) tough little scrub isn't with you!" the other finished. Then, the guards dissolved into giggles and popped back into their holes.   
I sighed and kicked a bit of dirt I found at my feet.   
"Aw MAN! What worse could have happened?" David said, trying to hide his anger.   
"We have to help Kelli! And what about Link? We still have to find him!" I reminded him.   
Suddenly, another small monkey like the one inside the palace dropped down next to us. "You see brother inside?"   
"Huh, your brother?" David said.   
"Brother monkey! Scrubs capture, think he took princess. Me see from above throne room, you sister stuck in there too?"   
"Yeah!" I said, hardly understanding what the monkey was saying.  
"Me know way into cage! You help sister, help brother too?"   
"Um, sure!" David replied.   
"Go to outside palace garden, over there. Hole up on top, fish man can help rock man get up! Go in, through tunnel, path goes into cage!" the monkey babbled.   
"OK, I think we got it!" I said, nodding at the monkey.   
The monkey grinned, and pointed over to where the outer garden began. "Cross over on lilypads!" the monkey said. "Bye-bye... Good luck saving sister and brother!"   
Then, the monkey hopped off.   
  
And if you REALLY,REALLY want to know all about our crossing the pads, the bruises on my legs can tell you sometime, if you want to know. But the important part is now, when we reached the hole.   
"Help me up, David!" I said, pointing at the hole.   
"OK, just get down right here..." David said. He hoisted me up and grunted.   
"Oh MAN Erik! How much do you weigh now, 600 pounds?"   
"Less talking, more lifting!" I said, and I almost reached the hole.   
Just as I was about to grab the ledge, I heard a small voice from below say, "Hey, what exactly are you doing?"   
David cried out in surprise and dropped me. I landed right on top of him."OOF!" we both cried.   
I looked up to see a small boy with a green tunic and a green hat standing there.   
  



	8. Woodfall Temple Woe

Majora: How It Really Happened!  
By Galaxy Girl  
  
CHAPTER SEVEN: WOODFALL TEMPLE WOES   
(Kelli's POV)  
  
As I watched Erik and David being pushed out the door, I had problems of my own. A crowd of Deku scrubs, each one at least twice my size, were carrying me towards the cage where the monkey was being held prisoner.  
"OW! Hey, get yer ugly hands off me!" I screamed, struggling against the waves of wooden soldiers.   
"Put her in the cage with the monkey!" the king cried, pointing at the cage with his large scepter. "Tie her up good! We'll punish her for lying later!"   
The cage door swung open with a squeak, and I was forced against a thick wooden pole. A strong willow rope was tied around me, and soon, the scrubs slammed the cage door shut and I was left hanging just below the furry white monkey.   
"Your majesty, I must protest!" I said, in my most diplomatic manner, considering I wanted to tear the heads off these little smart alecks who tied me up for no reason. "I didn't do anything! Why am I being imprisoned?"   
"You are a traitor to the Deku crown just like that monkey!" the king said, as though stating the obvious. "You seemed to stand up for him, so you must be an accomplice!"   
"I did NOT stand up for him!" I protested. "I called for his head!"   
"Ix-nay on the ead-hay!" the monkey hissed from above me.   
"Well, whatever. Unless one of you coughs up my darling princess or tells us where she is, you'll both die at sunrise!"   
  
I sighed, and peered around the cage. A pile of junk was set next to the pole, and there was a large vent shaft at the back of the cage.   
"Don't even think about it," the monkey said, noticing where I was looking. "This rope is too tough to break. I've tried it,"   
"How long have you been here?" I asked in as loud a whisper I could use and still be heard above the scrub's chants.   
"About two days..." the monkey said sadly.  
"TWO DAYS? Have they fed you?"   
"Only a plate of stale Deku nuts, and I can't stand them! I wish I had some nice juicy berries right now..."   
"Well, we need to think of something quick!" I said. "It's already..." I stared at a clock on the wall, not even stopping to think how weird it was that there was a clock inside a wooden electricity-deprived castle. "It's already 8:00 at night! In 10 hours, they're going to kill us!"   
"I've tried telling them it wasn't my fault..." the monkey said sadly. "The princess and I are good friends! We went into the Woodfall Temple to play... she taught me the song to raise the sunken main building! And when we were in there... All these creepy things were there! Monsters! And then their master captured the princess and carried her away!"   
"So what did you do?" I asked.   
"I ran back here to tell the king about it, but he just threw me in jail and said that I killed his daughter, or ate her, or something like that!"   
"He certainly is cranky, isn't he?"  
"I thought you would have known that, being a scrub and all!"   
I shook my head. I would have told him the REAL story, but I didn't think he'd believe me.   
I started thinking. About Erik and David, and what they were doing. About how we got into this mess in the first place. And about my normal self. Would I live to be human again?  
Suddenly, we heard rustling coming from the inside of the shaft. Seconds later, a small Deku scrub in a green hat appeared through the passage.   
"AHA! They said you'd be in here!" the scrub said, facing the monkey.   
"Who are you? What are you doing? Did you come to save us?" the monkey cried happily.   
"I guess so... but I only expected one of you here!" the scrub pondered. "Oh yeah, those weird guys outside told me about you!"   
He was pointing at me.   
"Well hurry up! Cut us down!" we both said.  
The scrub reached towards his face and was surrounded by a blue light.   
When the blue light faded, who stood there but Link!   
  
"YOU!" I cried. "We've been looking all over for you!"   
"Shut up! Do you want them to hear?" Link asked as he pulled out a sword.   
"Oh boy, when I get out of these ropes, when I get my hands on you..."   
Link expertly sliced through the ropes, and I dropped to the floor of the cage.   
Evidently, the scrubs were screaming so loud they didn't hear me hit. Link reached up to cut the monkey's ropes, but he was too short to reach!   
"Forget it!" the monkey hissed. "You're taking too long! Here, I need to ask a favor! The only way you can save me would be to go save the princess! She's in the Woodfall Temple... you gotta play this song to get in!"   
The monkey hummed a tune, and Link played it back on his Ocarina.   
"That's the 'Sonata of Awakening'!" the monkey explained. "It'll raise the temple when you play it! Now, hurry up and save the princess!"   
Link saluted and headed for the back shaft.   
"HEY! WAIT FOR ME!" I squealed.   
"SHUT UP!" Link cried, a bit too loudly. The king heard.   
"WHAT? A HUMAN? Get them outta here!" he cried.  
The guards opened the cage and yanked Link out. I yelped and leaped into the back shaft before they could see me.   
"Get that cauldron ready! That monkey has angered me for the last time!" the king screamed.   
  
I tiptoed all the way through the shaft, not stopping to look back once. I ended up in a large garden in the center of the palace.   
Dropping to the ground silently, I suddenly heard a whistle.   
"HALT! INTRUDER!"   
Two Deku guards ran up to me and grabbed me by the hair... um, leaves.   
"OW! OW! OW! OWWWWWW!" I yelped.   
"Naughty little Deku child!" one of the guards laughed. "This garden is for Royal Scrubs ONLY!"   
"OW! OW! OW, I'M SORRY! PLEASE JUST LET MY HAIR GO! OW! OW! OW!"   
The guards stared at each other a moment, and they chuckled.   
"'Hair'. That child has been spending too much time around humans!"   
Then, the two escorted me out of the palace, and booted me out the front door.   
"AND STAY OUT, YOU LITTLE DELINQUENT!"   
I landed in a face plant, and it took a minute to regain my senses.   
"I HATE SCRUBS!" I screamed, as I brushed myself off.  
"KELLI!"   
I turned to see Erik and David standing near the path that led back to the Woodfall section of the swamp.   
"I'm free!" I cried, as I ran back to their sides.   
"What happened?" David asked, running out of breath.  
"Link cut me out! And then they threw him out of here, didn't you see him?"   
"We didn't!" Erik complained. "If Clumsy here hadn't knocked me into the swamp..."  
"You tripped on your own, and it was two inches of water," David said, rolling his eyes.   
"We gotta find him! But wait, he said 'those two weird guys out front'! Was that you? Why didn't you ask him to change you back then?"   
"Because, we couldn't just leave you here!" Erik said. "Come on Kelli, give us some credit here!"  
"Look! There he is!" David cried, pointing over to a small island just to the west of where we were standing. Deku Link was preparing, to burrow into a Deku flower and fly up to a small hole in the wall.   
"Oh no you don't!" I yelled, as I ran to a flower next to Erik. I leaped inside, and catapulted out, grabbing two flowers and floating over to the island.   
Link had just gotten out of his flower, so I purposely steered my flowers into him and grabbed his waist.   
"HEY!" he cried, as we both went crashing to the ground.   
  
Erik and David reached the island just as Link and I had got up off the ground.   
"What's wrong with you?" he screamed. "I just saved you from in there, and you try and crash land me into poison water?"   
"No, that's not it!" Erik said quickly. "You're Link, right?"   
He pulled off his mask and a minute later the real Link stood before us. "Yeah, whaddya want?"  
"What would you say if I told you that we weren't really a scrub, a Goron, and a Zora?" I said.   
"I'd say you've been burrowing in a few too many flowers lately!" he laughed.   
"Think about it, stupid!" David said. "Skullkid turned you into a scrub, so why can't he turn all three of us into something else? We're Hylians, just like you!"   
Link raised an eyebrow and muttered, "Yeah, sure. So Skullkid changed ya into freaks... what does that have to do with me?"   
"You're the only one who can fix it!" Erik said.   
"ME? Oh Goddesses, why does everything depend on ME?" he whined.   
"We need you to play that one song the mask dude taught you so that we can turn human again!" David explained.   
Link sat a minute and thought, and turned to Erik, the one closest to his height.   
"And what is in it for me?"   
"Whaddya mean? Isn't helping us enough?" I asked.   
"Well, let's see here... I've healed... maybe 2 people so far? And I got masks from both cases!" he said. "Ya got anything for me?"   
The three of us stared at each other, and dug stuff out of our pockets.   
"Well, I got... I got a Deku nut, a green Rupee, and some lint!" I said.   
"I got some pebbles, a map of Termina, and some lint," Erik replied.   
"I got... lint," David said, turning the pockets of his blue Zora tunic out.   
Link stared and burst out laughing. "You gotta be kidding me! No mask, no deal!"   
"You cheap little jerk!" I cried. "Did YOU give the mask man a mask when he healed you?"   
"I was supposed to!" Link laughed.   
"Come on, PLEEEEEEASE? A poor kid is asking you!" David begged, dropping to his knees.   
Link shrugged, and turned to leave.   
I grabbed him by the ankles. "Come on! PLEEEEEASE? A hot 14 year old girl is asking you!"   
The stubborn kid stopped and turned around. "Did you say... hot?"  
"Extremely!" David commented.  
"Trust me, I can barely stop the men from getting their hands on her!" Erik added.   
I stomped on his foot.   
"OWWWOWOWOOWOWWWW!" he yelped.   
"Well..."   
I made puppy eyes.   
"PLEEEEEEEASE?" we all begged.   
"Well, all right."  
"YES!" Erik squealed, leaping up.   
"Right after I save the monkey,"   
David's mouth dropped. "NU UH! NOPE! You do it now!"   
"No way! I got stuff to do! Wait till I finish up here, and then I'll meet you outside the Woodfall Temple. Then I'll help you,"   
"Ya promise?" I said.  
Link held out his hand to David. "I promise,"   
They were about to shake, but Link quickly turned to Erik and shook his hand. "Sorry dude. No offense, but Zora skin freaks me out!"   
David shrugged. "Freaks me out too,"   
"So... where's the Woodfall Temple?" I asked.   
"You can find out for yourself," Link said, stepping a few feet back and pulling out his Ocarina.   
"Whaddya mean?" David demanded.   
"I'll change you back for free, but ya gotta FIND the Woodfall Temple first! AAHAAHAHAHAHAAAA!" Link laughed. He quickly played a strange song, and was again surrounded by a strange light.   
"Soar to Woodfall!" he cried, then he vanished.   
"YOU BRAAAAT! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" Erik screamed, as the light faded.   
  
To make a really long and really boring story short, we eventually climbed up the ledge and across a long series of platforms to a huge wooden building with a large waterfall rushing down off the top.   
"The temple is up there, right?" David asked.   
"I hope so," I said. "If I carried you all across those platforms for no reason, I'm going to hurt someone."   
We ducked through another tunnel that led to the top of the water- er, WOOD fall. We found ourselves in a large pond-like lagoon, with various nasty-looking insects buzzing around it and a large platform off to the side. There stood a familiarly annoying little Deku scrub, with a large set of Deku pipes on his shoulders.  
"There he is... HA! He thought he'd get rid of us that easily, did he?" David laughed, rubbing his hands together. "When I get my hands on him, I'll..."  
"Less talkin', more walkin'!" Erik scolded, as he began to carefully walk a thin wooden plank that began the broken path towards where Link was standing.   
I followed close behind him, unable to see anything except for between Erik's legs. It was not a pretty picture. David was right behind me, making a weird squishy noise as he walked.   
I don't know why, but I've always had this sort of pet peeve about squishy noises... I suppose, thinking back, that right then was a very bad time to bring it up. I assure you, I regret my self-centeredness in this situation to this very day.   
"Could you back away from me a little bit, David?" I asked politely.  
"Why?"   
"That sound you make when you walk is grossing me out."   
He didn't take it as well as I'd thought. "Excuse me? Is this really the time to be whining about what sound that I make when I walk? I can't really help it, y'know!"  
"Sorry, sorry! It's just this thing I have!" I shouted back.   
"Both of you shut your faces," Erik snapped. "I'm trying to concentrate on not falling in and, er, DYING."   
"Well I sound a lot better when I walk then you do... It's like a really squeaky tree shaking in the breeze. And I wish you'd do something about all the twigs falling out of your... whatever it is on your head!"   
"WILL YOU BOTH SHUT UP ALREADY?" Erik groaned. "For Din's sake!"   
"IT'S HAIR! HAIR! HAIR!" I squealed. "AND I'M VERY SELF-CONSCIOUS ABOUT IT!"  
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down!" David retorted. "Jeez, Kelli, I didn't know you were so easily offended..."  
"MY BEAUTIFUL HAIR HAS BECOME A PILE OF LEAVES GLUED TO MY HEAD!" I yelled. "MY HAIR IS MY PRIDE AND JOY! IT'S THE REASON I HAVE FOR LIVING! AND NOW IT'S ABOUT AS PRETTY AS A SHRUBBERY!"   
Erik let out a loud grunt and immediately jumped up in the air- well, as best as he could for a Goron.   
Just as he did, a small... well... SOMETHING came speeding down the ramp at ramming speed, with a sharp and nasty-looking horn on its head. It slipped between his airborne legs, and was heading right for us!   
"GYAAAAAAH!" David and I both screamed.   
I leapt into his arms and he made a flying dive over the small, angry thing, skidding to a halt a little further up the ramp and nearly sending Erik to a watery grave.   
Erik stumbled, and grabbed onto me for support. "SEE WHY YOU TWO NEED TO PAY ATTENTION!"   
"WHAT IS THAT THING!?" I shrieked as it did a 180 and came charging at us again.   
David had pulled a face plant, and was only just starting to sit up. "I CAN'T TAKE MUCH MORE OF THIS..."   
If only the poor guy knew how much more of this we'd end up taking.   
Erik grabbed David by the back of his vest and lifted him up, dragging him up onto the platform that the ramp linked with the other one. I was hanging limply by my little green leaf dress from David's hands, in case you care.   
The thing came speeding by just as Erik did a sidestep, sending it flying headlong into the murky water. A few seconds later, a bunch of bubbles morbidly came up from below.   
The three of us were more or less calming down as we stared into the water.   
"I was wondering what would happen if you fell in..." I whispered.   
"Let's... try not to do that," Erik suggested.  
"Erik my good man, that sounds like a very good idea," David concluded.   
  
Suddenly, across the top of the Woodfall echoed a familiar song played on Deku pipe. The Sonata of Awakening.   
The three of us whipped around just as the ground began to shake. We were just in time to see a few trees sticking out of the center of the Woodfall begin to shiver and rise...  
"What's happening NOW?!" Erik gasped.   
"That had better not be the Moon starting to fall again..." David murmured under his breath.   
We were all proven wrong as an entire BUILDING came rising up out of the swamp water. It was built out of something that looked like a cross between wood and stone... Maybe petrified wood. Elaborate Deku artwork was carved around the sides of it, and on the north and south sides there were small entrance doors cut into the wall. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be a way of getting in the south door, unless you were a very good jumper.   
We watched in half-suspense and half-awe as Link dove down into a Deku flower on the platform and popped out, fluttering over to the north door and slipping inside.   
"Well... I'll assume that that's the Woodfall Temple," I shrugged.   
"HIT THE DECK!"  
"What?" I mumbled, just in time to be sent flying by another one of those... whatever they weres.   
  
  
I'm trying not to bore you with this story, so I'll say this: Eventually, we got inside.   
We found ourselves in a wide-open room, with Deku flowered platforms every few yards that led across to a door in the south. The floor was pitch black, and we could hear something rustling about... I certainly didn't want to find out what it was.   
"Why are we here, anyway?" Erik whispered to David. "Link said he'd change us back if we found the temple and waited outside!"   
"You think we can trust that little library terrorist?" David scolded. "For shame, Erik. I figure he's gonna HAVE to keep his word if we follow him around... Besides, he'll probably need a little help finding the Deku Princess."   
(I had told them about the conversation between the monkey, Link, and myself.)   
I peered around, and shook my head. "This place doesn't look very Goron or Zora friendly."   
"Come on, we've managed before!" David said proudly. "We can do it!"   
Erik peeked over the edge of the platform we were standing on. "I definitely do not want to find out what's making that noise..."   
"Yeah David, and I'm tired of lugging you two around on Deku flowers!" I whined.   
David sat for a moment in thought, determined to think of a solution. He always prided himself on being the "leader" of our little group. Even back home at the library, David was the manager, and he always liked to have things go his way.   
"Well... Okay then. I've got an idea," he stated. "Kelli, go after Link."  
"HUH?!" I gasped.   
Erik raised an eyebrow. "What are you talkin' about?"   
"Well look around! What kind of people are carved on the walls?"   
"Deku Scrubs?" Erik guessed.  
"Who built the temple?"  
"Deku Scrubs?"  
"Whose swamp is the temple in?"  
"Deku Scrubs?"   
"So obviously, who is going to find it easiest to travel about in here?" David asked, eyeing me as he did.  
I let out a great sigh. "Me... Because I'm a Deku Scrub..."   
"Exactly!" David replied. "It'll take too long for you to drag Erik and me around here. So why don't you go alone?"  
"I don't wanna go all by myself!" I protested. "This place is scary! And what if I get eaten by something and don't come back?"   
"You can take care of yourself," David assured me. "You're our Sis."  
"No, she's not," Erik casually reminded him with a big nudge in the side.  
"Well, she's like our sister, isn't she?"   
"Yeah..." Erik sighed, deciding that it was pointless to argue once David had made up his mind. "He's right, Kelli."  
I let out a great groan and stepped towards the Deku flower in front of us, peering down to it with the cheer that a person about to be executed usually has.   
"We'll be waiting for you right here," David said. "All you have to do is find Link and make sure he keeps his promise."  
"Be careful, okay?" Erik warned. "I don't want to finish this stupid quest with any fewer people than who started it."   
"Yeah Kelli, try not to trip and die," David added.   
"Your encouragement comforts me greatly," I said sarcastically, diving into the flower and popping back out again.   
I carefully made my way across each of the platforms, careful not to fall down onto the floor and deal with the unknown noisemakers. I finally reached the exit to the room, very carefully avoiding two giant Skulltulas who were sleeping up near the roof. Then, with one final look back at my friends, I slipped through the door.   
  
The next room appeared to be a very large indoor lagoon, bordered by some small islands and on the second floor (where I was) some platforms with various doors leading to them. In the center of the water was a large wooden shrine with an unlit torch at the center.   
I believe that it was about here when I began to panic. Looking around the room carefully, I could hear flocks of creatures hiding in the ivy that clung to the walls, and monsters waiting in the darkness of one of the doorways for some unsuspecting bystander to come strolling by. I hated to think about the giant tentacles or other freaky things that could be hiding down in the water.   
And above it all was the terrible, ominous, pessimistic feeling I had that I would never find Link in here, I would never make it back to Erik and David, the three of us would never find our way back to Hyrule...   
And we would never be healed from this curse.   
Dreading what I would find, I followed a ramp leading down to the left, dodging a large (well, for me it was large) and nasty-looking mutant plant waiting there. A door to the left had been unlocked, and not wanting to risk running into the mutant tentacles I'd imagined in the water, I decided to take it.   
  
At the far end of the next room (another water-filled doodad, this time with ramps and a large moving block leading to some stairs), I spotted a small scrub heading towards than exit on the second floor.  
"ACK!" I shrieked, pointing at him. "STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU LITTLE BRAT!"  
He stopped in his tracks and stared at me with his big yellow eyes. Then he reached up near his face and a bright blue glow surrounded him. A few seconds later, the light faded and Link stood, with one eyebrow cocked. "What are you doing here?"  
"I'm looking for you!" I cried indignantly, edging my way along one of the ramps so I was standing next to him. It was a little embarrassing with him having to stare directly down to meet my eyes, what with me being older than him...   
"I thought I told you guys I'd help after I saved the Deku Princess," Link said, in an annoyed tone.   
"Well, I would have liked to believe you, but unfortunately, David doesn't. And he wouldn't stop whining until I followed you."   
"David... he's the Goron, right?" Link queried.  
"No, the Zora," I sighed.   
There was a small jingling noise, and that annoying yellow fairy appeared from Link's hat. "We don't have time for this, you idiot! Tell her to go away!"   
"I'VE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OUTTA YOU!" I shrieked viciously, throwing myself at Link and grasping desperately to squeeze that little hag until she exploded into fairy dust.   
"Ladies, ladies," Link groaned, picking me up by the back of the shirt and knocking the fairy away with his other hand. "Tatl, shut up already. And you... you... whoever you are..."  
"KELLI!" I yelled.   
"Okay fine, Kelli. Look, I PROMISED that I'd help you! So go tell your friend to keep his pants on and wait patiently..."  
That's when I lost it. "HE'S NOT WEARING PANTS, HE'S A ZORA! AND WE WILL NOT WAIT PATIENTLY, BECAUSE WE'VE ALREADY BEEN STUCK IN THESE BODIES FOR FOUR DAYS..."  
"Technically one day," the fairy, Tatl retorted for the sole purpose of pissing me off. "Drama Queen."   
"I'M GONNA KILL THAT FAIRY!"  
"Stop it!" Link snapped to Tatl, grabbing her and stuffing her back in the hood of his hat.   
He took a deep breath and turned to me, leaning down to get a better look at my face. "I'm sorry you're stuck in that body... I know what it's like. It's annoying, huh?"   
"Tell her to live with it!" Tatl yelled from inside his hat. Link swatted it as a warning.   
A very strange noise burst out of my snout, and some kind of sticky liquid poured out of my eyes. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! I WANNA BE A HUMAN AGAIN, PLEEEEEEASE!"   
Link's eyebrows rose almost off of his face. "What are you doing?"   
I couldn't seem to control myself. It appeared that all the stress had finally driven me bonkers. "I... I... I... WAAAAAAAAAA!"   
"Are you... crying?" he mumbled confusedly.   
"I DON'T KNOW! 'FER CRYIN' OUT LOUD, I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY BODY IS DOING! I'M A DEKU SCRUUUUUUB!"   
"I think you are... That's interesting, your tears are tree sap," Link mumbled.   
"WHAT DO I LOOK LIKE, A SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT?!"   
"Hey, hey, calm down!" Link grunted, leaping away from me.   
We stood there for a few minutes, as I continued making very strange squeaky noises and "sapping" all over, while Link watched me awkwardly. Inside, I was wishing that I would stop making noises and just cry normally... I didn't feel like a scrub. I still felt like a normal Hylian girl. I wished Link could see me for what I was...   
Whoa, this is starting to sound like a terrible Mary-Sue. I WAS JUST TRYING TO EMPHASIZE HOW WEIRD IT IS TO FEEL NORMAL BUT LOOK LIKE A SCRUB! I SWEAR TO DIN, I DON'T HAVE A CRUSH ON LINK! I PROMISE, PROMISE, PROMISE!   
So finally, Link gave me a nudge with his foot. "Okay... Here. If you stop... whatever you're doing, I'll let you follow me around for the rest of the temple."   
"THANK YOU!" I cried, snagging onto his ankle.   
He promptly shook me off. "STOP."   
"Yes sir!" I saluted, taking off after him as he hurried up the stairs and towards a doorway that looked like cobwebs had been burned away from it recently.  
And so girls, remember: BIG SOBS SINK SLOBS.   
  
Tatl was the only light as the three of us tiptoed down a pitch-black hallway where we could hear tiny squeaks. Needless to say, I was sticking very close to Link, who was the only one of us with a sword.   
"Could you please not crawl up my butt?" he asked in an annoyed tone, pushing me backwards with one foot.  
"Well jeez! You're the only one here capable of defending yourself!" I argued. "Well... unless your fairy wants to sacrifice herself in the name of..."  
"Bite me, Woody!" Tatl snapped.   
"TATL!" Link cried in dismay.   
"One more derogatory scrub insult out of your mouth and I'll toast you and dip you in chocolate, you stupid bug," I growled viciously to her.   
"I doubt you could even jump high enough to catch me," Tatl snapped.  
At that second, she stopped in midair and made a jingling noise. "Link!""What?"   
"I sense darkness in this corridor..."  
"Wow, me too! And all I had to do was open my eyes!" I said cheerfully, and extremely sarcastically.   
"I MEAN MONSTERS, YOU LITTLE IDIOT!"   
There was a tiny squeak, and something with very scary glowing orange eyes appeared in the corner.   
"AAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" Tatl and I both shrieked. Link immediately drew his sword.   
"What is it, Tatl?"   
"It's a Black Boe!" Tatl announced. "Man, what a stupid name... They're sissies! Just whack it and it'll die!"   
Link did just that. Swinging his sword around wildly, I heard it slice right through a few things and saw the bodies of the little things burning up. It was pretty cool.   
I felt obliged to help, so I wiped out a few by spitting on them. That was REALLY cool. If there was one good thing about being a Deku Scrub, it was that I had "Spit O' Doom".   
When the hallway was clear, we continued walking until we reached a larger room with unlit torches around it, and more ominous orange eyes peering out of the corners.   
"I'll light those... kill some of those things, will ya?" Link ordered, pulling a large stick out of... nowhere.   
He disappeared behind a small wall, and suddenly a torch in the center of the room burst into flames.   
I was spitting like crazy, taking out as many of the little buggers as I could. Tatl was fluttering over my shoulder, mocking everything I did.   
"Is that all you can do? Spit?"   
"What do I look like, a warrior princess?" I snapped.   
"Well, haven't you figured out how to fight in a Deku body yet?"   
"Sorry, I wasn't planning on sticking around in this body long enough to DO any fighting!"   
Tatl shook her head... I think. "Well, as long as you're stuck like that, you might as well figure out how to fight! Deku are fast. You can spin around and attack things, ya know."   
So, to get her to shut up, I spun around towards them, sending my leafy hair flying all over. To my surprise, Boes were not spin-resistant. A whole bunch of them dropped dead.  
Well, whaddya know? The little witch was good for SOMETHING.   
The room became a lot brighter as Link lit up all the torches. A treasure chest mystically rose up from the ground, and he opened it up. I didn't even care what was in it.   
"Okay, let's go," he murmured, pointing to a door that had become visible in the light.   
  
The next room was scary. A bottomless-looking floor, and a whole bunch of moving platforms with Deku flowers on them. Some nasty-looking dragonflies were buzzing around in the air.   
Link pulled out his Deku mask and put it on. A flash of yellow appeared, and he appeared next to me, the same size.   
"Misery loves company," I sighed to him.  
"You can make it across here, right?" he asked in a high-pitched Deku voice.   
"I think so,"   
"Well, me too. And if not, I'll meet you back in the main room."  
With that, he burrowed down into a flower next to him and popped out, fluttering over to one of the moving platforms, Tatl following close behind.   
"Okay... I can do it!" I told myself. I burrowed down into the flower and popped out, following Link over towards the next platform, which he had already reached and left, moving on.   
I carefully lined myself up to land, and did so. It was pretty scary. Taking a deep breath, I burrowed into this one and popped out, following them.   
I met with an obstacle that I was NOT prepared for.  
One of those nasty dragonflies was right in my way. The end of its tail was sparking with electricity, and it looked like it was just itching to knock me out of the air and feast on me.  
"Nice buggy... Nice buggy..." I whimpered as it zoomed towards me. "KEEYAH!"   
It was pretty sad to watch. Abandoning my Deku flowers, I snagged onto the dragonfly like a rabid hamster on the eraser end of a pencil. It flapped its wings in terror, my extra weight stopping it from flying.   
I didn't know whether to be insulted, or fearing for my life.  
With that, both the dragonfly and I went plummeting down into the darkness of the floor, me screaming like a lunatic and it buzzing to try and get airborne again.   
I closed my eyes and prayed that perhaps there was something soft at the end of that bottomless pit.   
  
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...  
SPLAT!  
A splattering of something warm, sticky and gooey covered my as I landed on something that strangely seemed to squish as I hit it.   
I opened my eyes. I was lying in the center of that large shrine back in the main room.   
And below me were the green, squishy remains of the dragonfly I had run into up above.   
They were also covering me.   
"EWWWW..." I grimaced, standing up and wiping myself off. I stared down at the large Kelli-shaped impact I'd made in its body, and tipped my non-existent hat to the brave sacrifice of the nasty icky bug thing so that I might not die.   
I took a look around. There were holes in the ceiling up above. Oh... So the floor wasn't bottomless after all!   
Well anyway, Link hadn't even noticed me fall. I was once again by myself.   
I didn't want to try and get back up there... who knows what sort of things I'd run into if I tried to follow Link again?   
I had half a mind to head back to the entrance and meet David and Erik. Erik would understand how klutzy I was... But David would no doubt yell at me and tell me to go back.   
So I lay down on the center of the shrine and stared up at the ceiling to wait for Link.   
  
A couple of thoughts crossed my mind as I sat, thinking. What would happen if we did turn back to normal? Would the curse be gone forever, or would it periodically come back, like once in a full moon? Would we be normal people again, or would the after-effects of the curse somehow mutate us?  
Maybe we'd be left with strange superpowers. Perhaps David would be able to breathe underwater, or Erik would have super strength...  
But what about me?   
Maybe I'd be super-flammable.   
Would Skull Kid be able to find us again and curse us again? It would be pretty agonizing if, on our way back to Hyrule, triumphant in our quest for the missing library book, we ended up cursed again and having to come back to Termina to look for that stupid Link.   
And then, I began to think again about what would happen if we never turned back to normal. If we were stuck in Termina forever, maybe continually reliving these three days. Would the three of us stick together?   
People would probably find it pretty weird if a Deku, a Goron and a Zora hung out all the time. I thought that eventually, we'd have to go our separate ways and forget about each other.   
David would get along well with the Zoras. He, like Erik and me, was also a rabid Indigo-Gos fan. With his leadership attitude, he'd make a great manager. Or assistant manager. Or groupie.   
Erik would probably have fun as a Goron. He was the page at the library, the guy who put all the books back on the shelves and kept them in order, and the guy who handled all the new shipments and such. Maybe the Gorons had a library that Erik could work at. And if not, maybe he could make one.   
And me... I was the receptionist, who kept track of the books people checked out and when they were due. What kind of life could I find as a Deku Scrub? Maybe if I begged and pleaded, I could get a job at the Deku Palace, keeping track of something... Maybe I could be a handmaiden of the Deku Princess, if they ever found her. Or maybe I'd become a Business Scrub.   
Then I had an even more disturbing thought. What if, when time reset itself again, Koume and Kotake's spell was lifted and the Spirit Consummation Curse came back in full swing?   
What if we reverted fully to Scrub, Goron and Zora state, and forgot about our real lives?   
  
I must have sat there thinking about it for a long time, because I heard a click from upstairs after about half an hour. A familiar Deku Scrub waddled down and peered at me from over the balcony. "There you are!" he squeaked.  
I sat up. "Where have you been?"   
"Finishing looking for the princess. Wondering if you got killed... Hey, come up here for a second," Link said, all in one breath.  
"How?"   
"There's a ladder over here I just made fall down."   
I looked down below him, and sure enough, there was a ladder. I leaped down from the shrine and hopped across the water as quickly as I could, climbing the ladder very slowly. Link took off his mask as I arrived next to him.   
"I need your help," he murmured, pointing across the room to where a small lit torch was set next to a switch.   
I followed him over, ignoring the feeling I had that something was about to happen.   
"See that torch? I need to get some of that flame to light an arrow on fire."   
"For WHAT?" I murmured.  
Link pointed at the shrine I had been standing on. "I gotta bring that shrine up by lighting the torch in the middle, but I can't make the jump over there."  
"Can't you fly?" I asked, pointing to a nearby Deku flower.   
"Tried it... Almost died," Link shrugged. "I'll give you a stick. I'll toss you over there real gently, and you light the stick on fire and pass it over to me."  
"How will I get back?" I asked.   
"Once I bring the shrine up, I'll help you back," Link said.   
"You promise?"   
"Well yeah!" He handed me a stick. "Go ahead... I won't do anything."   
With no choice but to comply, I took the stick from him. I found it a bit disturbing that it was made of the same wood as I was. Link lifted me up very gently, and tossed me across the gap.   
I landed with a little thump, and shook myself off. "Okay... Gonna light it now!"   
I stuck the end of it in the flame, and it ignited. Very carefully, I stretched out to hand the stick across the gap to Link. He was stretching too, but couldn't seem to reach it.   
"Come on... come on..." I mumbled.   
"I'm trying!" Link mumbled back.   
What happened next was, to be perfectly frank, a twist of terrible, terrible fate.   
A moth that happened to be flying around the torch flew just a little bit too close to the flame. The moth burst into a very small fire, just a little bit alive enough to flutter helplessly around in a circle.   
The air in the temple rushed just a little bit towards the flaming moth, knocking it out of the air where it fell, just a little bit too close to directly above my head.   
It landed just a little bit too close to an especially dry leaf in my hair.   
Seconds later, there was a loud WHOOSH noise, and I felt something extremely hot explode on my back. I knew it could only be one thing.  
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I shrieked in utter terror. "I'M ON FIRE, I'M ON FIRE, I'M ON FIRE!"  
Link gasped, and let the stick drop down into the swamp water below. "COME HERE, COME HERE, COME HERE!" he yelled.   
Tatl burst out laughing so hard I think she almost fell over. I made a brief mental note to kill her as soon as I was extinguished.   
I made a flaming, flying leap and Link snagged me out of the air. I was squirming like crazy, slapping at my flaming hair and screaming insanely. "SAVE ME, SAVE ME, SAVE ME, SAVE ME!"   
Link looked around quickly, and finally decided on a course of action. "You're gonna hate me for this," he mumbled.   
"TOO LATE!" I shrieked.   
To my utter shock, he passed me to his left arm, his throwing arm, and chucked me towards the shrine in the center of the room like a speeding, screaming fireball.   
I slammed into the torch, lighting it into a roaring fire. There was a small rumbling and the swamp water in the room faded away into a normal, blue color. The shrine rose up out of the water just as I bounced off of it and tumbled down into the water, making a little puff of smoke and a loud splash as I hit.   
  
I remember lying dazed in the water for a moment, and finally lifting myself out and crawling over towards one of the lily pads. I lay there for a while, and when I finally regained my senses, I reached back to assess the damage.   
To my absolute horror, my hair had been charred to oblivion below my shoulders. What had once been a (if I do say so myself...) gorgeous bundle of fluffy brunette hair, and then a long and bushy mat of leaves had become a short, charred, burned lump of tinder. I'd gone from waist-length, to floor-length as a scrub, to a crew-cut.   
I sat up, calmly headed towards the ladder, my eyes set on the door to the north where Link and Tatl had gone. I slowly walked towards the door, stopped in front of it, and gazed up at it.   
That's when I really and truly lost it.   
My orange eyes lit up viciously, and I let out a maniacal shriek of "I'LL KEEEEEEEEEELL HEEEEM!"   
Then I beat the door open with my head and raced in after him.   
  
The next room, an obstacle course of Deku flowers and flame, went by in a flash. I was so overcome by rage, I seemed to reach the other side in a second. I beat that door open as well, just in time to see Link standing in a wide open room, looking around. Mysterious drumming could be heard in the distance.   
Tatl was the first to see me. She jangled nervously and tapped Link on the shoulder. "Hey... You have a guest."   
He turned around slowly to see me, on the verge of exploding into fury. I was shaking down to the tips of my wooden toes. I clenched my fists in anger, and let out a lunatic scream.   
"I'LL KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL YOU!" I barked (excuse the tree pun), launching myself at him like the aforementioned rabid hamster.   
"WHOA, HEY, I PUT YOU OUT, DIDN'T I?!" Link yelled as I landed on him, trying desperately to claw him into a piece of steak.   
"I'LL KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL YOU!" I screeched again.   
Suddenly, there was a loud pound from behind Link, and a huge silhouette with an even huge-r sword appeared, singing some kind of strange chant.   
He turned around, and so did I, just in time to see a large, singing, dancing, psycho jungle-man with a huge sword dancing around at the other end of the room.   
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHH!" I screamed.   
Link whipped out his sword and knocked me off of him. "MOVE IT!"   
"IT'S ODOLWA!" Tatl cried. "AND IF YOU GET CLOSE TO THAT, YOU WILL BE KILLED?! YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"   
"But there's no other way to-" Link started to say, just before Tatl whacked him in the side of the face with her body.   
"MOVE IT!"  
Link and I leapt out of the way just in time to avoid a big, painful slice with a big, painful sword. The crazy jungle man just kept jumping around and hooting and howling. He was really more of a walking, dancing musical than an evil monster.   
This must be the master of the monsters that the monkey was talking about...   
I decided to put aside Link and my differences for now, as I backed into a corner and watched Link duking it out with the big brute. Poor kid kept getting knocked around by Odolwa's huge sword. I was amazed that he wasn't dead already!   
Tatl kept screaming demands at him the whole time. Now, if I were him, at this point, I would have started going for her instead of the monster.   
  
After a few hits had been scored on both sides, Odolwa really started acting like a weirdo. He stood at the far end of the arena, shaking it, and a bunch of nasty-looking turquoise bugs began to fall from the ceiling. I let out a little gasp of concern as they started attacking him.   
"I'M COMING!" I yelled bravely, racing out into the arena.   
I realize that that was probably a stupid thing to do, but what choice did I have? If Link succumbed to the monster's fury, I would most definitely be next. And if Link succumbed to the monster's fury, Erik, David and I were doomed.   
Link spun around in time to see me take out a few of the bugs with spit and spins (that sounds like one of those toys that you give to preschoolers... "Sit N' Spin"? "Spit N' Spin"? ... Ah, whatever.) "What are you doing!?" he gasped. "You're gonna get killed!"  
"I AM NOT!" I protested. "YOU BETTER HOPE YOU DO, THOUGH, BECAUSE WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU-"  
I was cut short as I accidentally tripped and landed in a Deku flower on the floor.   
I heard a little chuckle from up above, and a few screams of agony from Odolwa.   
Guessing I had landed wrong, I struggled to try and escape from my flowery prison. No use. I was pretty stuck.   
So anyway, I'm sorry I can't tell you really what happened the rest of the battle between Link and Odolwa, but I was kind of trying to concentrate on getting myself out.   
Finally, after a bit of wiggling, I was right-side up again, and I could pop out.   
I could hear loud pounding footsteps heading towards my flower. But I didn't care... I just wanted out of there. So, with no hesitation, I flung myself out of the flower...  
And felt my body smack into something large and armored.   
There was a loud scream, and then another one (that one was me), and the ground shook as Odolwa slammed into the ground, dead. I landed right on top of him. Then I felt a strange sort of cool flame as his body disappeared, and I smacked down into the ground below.   
I sat up quickly to look for Link, just in time to see him grab something lying next to me on the ground, then speed off towards a blue portal. Once he reached the portal, he vanished into thin air before I could stop him.   
I stood up to chase after him, but strangely... I lost consciousness.   
  
  
I was floating. And it was very warm. I could hear a very deep voice humming a song, over and over again.   
Suddenly, the voice spoke.  
  
ONE HAS BEEN SAVED... THREE REMAIN...   
  
Huh? Who's saved? Who are the other three?   
  
THREE CURSED BEINGS...  
  
Wait... what are you talking about?   
  
THREE CURSED BEINGS MUST BE FREED FROM THEIR MASKS...  
  
Are you talking about me? And Erik and David?!   
  
THREE CURSED BEINGS MUST RETURN HOME...  
  
That's us! Who are you?! How do you know about us? And WHERE AM I?!   
  
YOU MUST RETRIEVE THE STOLEN ARTIFACT...  
  
The library book... Yes, the library book! That's why we're here!  
  
YOU MUST RETRIEVE IT AND FREE THE THREE CURSED ONES...  
  
THE FATE OF THE WORLD RESTS ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE THREE.  
  
Us three... the fate of the world?!   
  
A blue glow was surrounding me now... The warmth was fading.   
It's funny. When I opened my eyes there, in that strange dream I was having, I couldn't see anything but white.   
But when I looked down at myself, I saw human hands...  
  
  
DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY: 48 HOURS REMAIN  
  
I had almost forgotten the dream when I appeared mysteriously back in the entrance room, floating down gently to the floor.   
I felt very sleepy... Like I HAD been dreaming.   
That's when I heard a little squeak from next to me.  
I opened my eyes to see a flock of those little Black Boe things glaring back at me.   
"AAAAAGGGGHHHH!"  
WHACK! WHOMP! SPLAT! WHACK! WHACK!  
  
"KELLI!" David cried as I quickly climbed up the ladder and onto the entrance platform of the temple, looking very downhearted. "You're okay! Did you find Link?"   
I threw him a look of pure evil, and he shut up immediately.   
Erik was standing behind me, examining what remained of my hair. "Um... Kel? What happened to your..."   
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT," I growled. "Link split. He's not here anymore. Let's get out of here."   
  
As we exited the temple, we were shocked to see that the top of the Woodfall had taken on a very different appearance. The water was no longer sickly purple and poisonous, but a nice clean blue. The evil bugs and... rammy things were gone.   
"Hey, I guess he turned the temple back to normal," David murmured. "Well, good for him..."  
"But what about the Deku Princess?" asked Erik.   
"Didn't see her anywhere. I don't know," I admitted, shaking my head sadly.   
"Well... We might as well get out of here and go looking for Link again," David sighed. He sounded very disappointed. I didn't know he was that set on his plan working.   
At that second, we heard footsteps from the other side of the temple.  
I dove down into a Deku flower and popped back up in time to see Deku Link carrying a bottle filled with something bright pink and green.   
"THERE HE IS!" I cried. "HE'S HEADING BACK TOWARDS THE ENTRANCE!"   
"ALL RIIIIGHT!" Erik and David both cried with glee.   
  
I'll spare you the story of how we got back down the Woodfall, but all you need to know is that we were now racing up the bridges that led to the entrance to the Palace.   
Link bowed a greeting to the two scrub guards out front, and headed right inside. We were following pretty closely.   
"You (squeak) again!" one of the guards gasped. "Oh no ya don't!"  
"We know better than to let you in!" the other one added. "You might as well- AAGGGH!"   
That noise was Erik whacking the two out of the way with a mighty Goron punch.   
"Thank you, my good man!" I bowed respectfully, and the three of us raced into the Deku throne room.   
  
We were right in time to see the monkey hanging upside down over a boiling pot in the middle of the room. We were also in time to see Link uncorking the bottle and releasing a small Deku girl on the platform in front of the king. The princess!  
She looked a lot like me, actually. She was wearing a leafy pink, red and green dress, and her leaves were long and leafy green, tied back with a cute tiara made of pink flowers.   
The king gasped with joy. "OH! MY DARLING PRINCESS! YOU'RE ALL RIGHT! Oh, dear, I'm SOOO glad you're safe!"  
But the princess did not seem to return his affections. She was shaking with rage and throwing him the death glare. "HFF... HFF... FOOLISH FATHER!"  
And with that, she launched herself at him and attacked him like the omnipresent and aforementioned rabid hamster, bouncing up and down and attempting to rip every leaf from his body.   
All of the scrubs in the room gasped in terror and stepped away.   
Once her father had received a severe beating, the princess turned on them, throwing them the same vicious glare. "WHAT are you looking at?"   
They all backed away in terror.   
The king's hand reached up into the air aimlessly. "SWEETHEART... PLEASE GET OFF OF DADDY..."  
"LET THAT MONKEY GO THIS INSTANT!" shrieked the princess.   
"LET THAT MONKEY GO THIS INSTANT!" squeaked the king.   
I have to admit, it gave me some vengeful pleasure seeing the princess take out her anger on her father.   
Once the monkey was free and on the ground, the princess finally left her father alone with one last mighty kick, and raced over to see him. "Oh, Mr. Monkey! I'm so sorry! Father makes such rash decisions when he's worried about me!"  
"It's okay, Princess!" the monkey chuckled. "I understand... But more importantly, has the temple here been returned to normal?"  
"Why yes, thanks to Mr. Link here," the princess said cheerfully, nodding to Link, who was standing smugly on the other side of her. "I am truly grateful."  
"So you're named Link, are you?" the monkey said. "Thank you for keeping your promise to me!"   
"No problem," Link smiled.   
"WHAT ABOUT US?!" screamed David, unable to hold it in anymore.   
Link jumped half a mile in the air, reached up, and pulled off his Deku mask. His human form stared at the three of us nervously.   
The Deku King had just gotten on his feet again, and he pointed at me. "YOU! THAT'S THE SCRUB THAT WE'D CAPTURED EARLIER AND WERE GOING TO PUNISH!"   
"FATHER!" screamed the princess.   
He leaped backwards in shock. "Sorry, dear!" the king shrieked meekly, ducking back down behind his podium.   
The princess waddled over to the three of us, looking concerned. "Hello, there! I'm the Deku Princess... what are your names?" she asked.   
"Um... your highness..." I murmured. "I'm Kelli... The Zora is David and the Goron is Erik..."  
"Pleased to meet you," she smiled. "I'm sorry about my father... I hope he didn't hurt you, Kelli."   
"No harm done," I smiled cheerfully, placing my hand over the back of my head to avoid letting her see my new hairdo.   
The princess nodded politely. "What brings you to our kingdom?"   
"HIM!" we all three shrieked at the same time, pointing at Link accusingly.   
"What did he do? He's a hero!" the monkey protested.   
"He's the only one who can help us!" Erik cried miserably.   
"Help you how?" asked the princess.   
"Your highness, all of the trouble in the temple was caused by a masked Skull Kid," David explained quickly. "He also was responsible for causing the moon to crash into Clock Town yesterday!"   
I gave him a nudge in the ribs as the princess glanced at him like he was insane.   
"Uh... never mind, I mean... That Skull Kid transformed us into these things!" David recovered quickly.   
The princess raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand."   
"We're supposed to be Hylians," I said. "And Link is the only one who can cure us, but he won't keep his promise!"   
"I never said I wouldn't!" he yelled in his own defense.   
"Well why don't you? You promised to once you helped the Woodfall Temple!" Erik snapped.  
"Yeah, that's right!" David and I cried.   
Link backed away from us. "Well, ah... why don't I... um... take care of that now?"   
"THANK YOU!" the three of us yelled.   
All the scrubs and the princess watched as Link walked sheepishly over to us, his Ocarina in hand. Tatl seemed to be whispering something into his ear. I eyed her suspiciously as he took his place at our sides.   
"Okay..." he sighed. "This is the Song of Healing."   
I glanced up at Erik. He glanced at David. David glanced at me, and all three of us let out big sighs of relief.   
At last, our journey was over!   
I looked down at my Deku Scrub body, and said a silent farewell.   
Link closed his eyes and played a melody on the Ocarina.   
  
A strange sort of warmth filled the room, and all of the scrubs gasped in awe.   
"AAAHHHH, YOU GUUUYS! IT'S TINGLY!" Erik screeched.   
"I CAN FEEL IT... I'M TURNING NORMAL..." David added.  
"FINALLY!" I sobbed with joy.   
Then the warmth faded, and we opened our eyes.   
  
"Hey, where'd he go?" asked the princess.   
Link was GONE. A pile of feathers on the floor was all that remained of him.   
I glanced up at Erik. He glanced at David. David glanced at me, and all three of us let out tortured screams of anger.  
"THAT LITTLE LIAR! THAT TRAITOROUS, BACK-STABBING..." screamed a very irate Goron.   
"...I CAN'T BELIEVE WE TRUSTED HIM! IF HE CAN'T RETURN A LIBRARY BOOK ON TIME, THEN HOW DO WE TRUST HIM TO..." snarled a vicious Zora.  
"I'LL KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL HEEEEM!" I, an incredibly pissed off Deku Scrub announced. "FIRST HE DOES THIS TO MY HAIR, AND NOW..."  
All three of us burst into tears. Even the boys weren't ashamed to let it out. It was sort of funny, actually.   
David was making some kind of weird bubbling noise, and slick silver tears were sliding off of his scaly body like water off a duck's back. He was also beating his head against the wall.   
Erik was howling in a strange Goron-sounding voice that resembled a siren, and throwing himself onto the ground repeatedly.   
And I was "sapping" again, making that demented squeal.   
The Deku princess seemed outraged. "How rude!" she cried, running over and giving me a big hug. "I'm very sorry! I can't believe that a Deku Hero like that would do that to somebody!"   
"DON'T BE SORRY!" I squealed. "IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!"  
"Oh, but you followed him... Through the temple, right?" asked the monkey, hopping over near us.   
"ALL THE WAY THROUGH!" Erik wailed.   
The other scrubs and the king were just watching awkwardly.   
"I wish we could do something to help!" the princess sighed.   
"NOW WE HAVE TO FIND HIM ALL OVER AGAIN!" David yelled, still beating his head against the wall.   
The princess glanced at the monkey, who appeared to be in deep thought. "Well... uh..." he murmured. "I guess... if we can't heal you, then maybe... we could help you catch up with him..."  
"YES PLEASE!" the three of us yelled, stopping crying instantly.   
The monkey saluted. "Okay! We swamp monkeys will help you out!"   
"But before that," the princess announced, stepping towards me. "What... happened to your leaves?"   
I turned bright red. "Um... well..."  
David and Erik also appeared to want to know.   
"... Link lit me on fire and threw me at a torch," I admitted, stretching the truth just a little.   
David and Erik raised their eyebrows. "Whaaaat?"   
The princess gasped. "OH HOW HORRIBLE! Your poor leaves!"   
"I know... I know..." I sighed.   
She shook her head sadly, and ran over to what appeared to be the Deku butler. She whispered something in his ear, and he disappeared into a back room of the palace for a moment.   
He reappeared a minute later with a small bottle made of wood. He bowed down very low and presented it to me on a wooden platter.   
"For the lady scrub... Dr. Deku's Leaf Restoring Formula. Makes you look several rings younger!"   
"Is this for me?" I gasped, not having a clue what he meant by "rings".   
"Yes, it's a present!" the princess announced. "As a thank you for helping Link to save me."   
"BRAVO!" yelled the king from the corner, where he was hiding from his daughter.   
I took the bottle and held it close, hardly able to wait to get my hair... er, leaves back. "Thank you, Princess..."   
"You're very welcome... Father, please make a declaration that these three will be allowed in our kingdom any time!" the princess asked very nicely.   
"YEAH, WHAT SHE SAID!" the king immediately shouted.   
"Hey, come on!" the monkey squeaked, tugging on Erik's arm. "Let's go... I have an idea on how to help you!"   
  
A few minutes later...  
  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!" I screeched, holding onto the back of the boat for dear life.   
David was up front, steering, and Erik was in the back to make sure I didn't fly off. We were zipping through a long straightaway of clear swamp water right below Woodfall, in our little boat we'd rented from Koume. Well... the monkeys had made a few... adjustments. Who knew that swamp monkeys were so good at fixing old engines?   
"THERE HE IS, DEAD AHEAD!" David cried, pointing dramatically.   
Link was in a smaller boat up ahead of us, paddling with an oar. That made him look extremely pathetic compared to our little powerboat.   
He turned around very slowly, and when he saw us coming, let out a terrified shriek and started paddling faster.   
Erik reached back with one hand and grabbed me, and with the other hand, he snatched Link off of his tiny boat like a falcon snatching prey out of the air.   
Link was dangling helplessly by the back of his tunic from Erik's thick arms. He glanced over at the three of us, who were staring at him with the look that only a troop of irate, cursed Hylians who'd had a promise to them broken could have.   
"Um... yeah... about that little thing back there..." Link said, very quietly, realizing that he was in mortal peril.   
"You'd better have a good explanation for that," Erik chuckled dangerously.   
"I panicked!" Link giggled nervously.   
"... A better one," David growled.   
"OKAY, OKAY! I'LL FIX YOU NOW!" Link cried, holding up his hands. "I'm going to get my Ocarina..."   
He stopped reaching for it when he felt me squirming around on his back. "THERE YOU ARE!" I cried triumphantly, ripping Tatl out of where she'd been hiding in Link's hat.   
"SAVE ME!" Tatl shrieked.   
"I'LL TEACH YOU TO CALL ME 'WOODY'!" I sneered maniacally.   
Link pulled out his Ocarina, and still in midair, put it to his lips. "OKAY, OKAY! I'LL PLAY THE SONG IF YOU LET TATL GO!"  
David swatted at my hands, and I released her, even though it was still on my agenda to kill her.   
Link nodded. "OKAY... HERE I GO!"  
Then, over the humming of the engine of the boat, we could hear that familiar song...   
  
THE SONG OF TIME.  
  
A flash of light, and we were falling through a screaming white tunnel vortex, our senses blurring over like they had at midnight on the third day... Last go-round, that is.   
"WE'LL GET YOU FOR THIS, DAMN YOU! I SWEAR TO FARORE, YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, LINK!" David screamed as we all blacked out. 


	9. Snowhead Mountain High

MAJORA: How It Really Happened!  
  
By Galaxy Girl  
  
CHAPTER NINE: SNOWHEAD MOUNTAIN HIGH   
  
(David's POV)   
  
When the mysterious song had faded away, the three of us were once again standing in the middle of North Clock Town two days earlier, not in the best mood.   
  
"WHY... WHY?!" Erik let out with a tremendous groan. "WHY must he make it so DIFFICULT?!"   
  
I shook my head, a deep scowl upon my face, and sighed. "This is why I HATE people who won't return their books on time... This is what we get for being so lenient with the little brat! Now he thinks he can get away with ANYTHING!" I thought I saw Erik preparing to punch me as I finished. At this point, I think I was the only one who really cared about the missing book anymore.   
  
But as the manager, that was my JOB!   
  
Kelli burst into an angry squeak. "Well... here we go again! Where do you think we'll have to chase him this time?"   
  
Erik glanced at her and shrugged. "Dunno..."  
  
There was only a brief, noisy moment (what with all the other residents of Clock Town carrying on in the background) of melancholic silence before I spoke.   
  
"We need to think like Link would," I announced, getting a good idea. "If you were an evil little boy trying to make our lives miserable, where would you go?"   
  
"Somewhere dangerous," Erik suggested.  
  
"Right..."  
  
"Somewhere far-away," Erik suggested again.  
  
"Yep..."  
  
"Somewhere we'd never want to go for any other reason," he concluded.   
  
Our pondering was interrupted by Kelli, who had just noticed something.  
  
"MY HAIR!" she squealed happily, spinning around and giggling as her "luxurious" green leaves spun around her wooden body. "OH, BOYS, LOOK! MY HAIR'S GROWN BACK!"   
  
"That's great, Kelli!" Erik smiled enthusiastically. And I nodded my approval, too. At least things would be easier now that she wasn't on a vicious rampage.   
  
"Oh, my beautiful hair, I missed you so much!" Kelli cooed, throwing some leaves over her shoulder and stroking them lovingly.   
  
"When Link reset time, everything that happened the last... I mean... everything that happened tomorrow was reset as well," I explained, hoping that I had the gist of it right.  
  
"Think Koume and Kotake's counterspell reset too?" Erik gulped nervously.   
  
"I sure hope not..." I sighed.  
  
"But hey... Look, I've still got that bottle of Dr. Deku's that the princess gave me," Kelli exclaimed, holding up the bottle. It was shiny green glass sealed with a wooden cork.   
  
"That's strange," Erik murmured.   
  
"I wonder how whoever it is decides what we keep and what we lose when time resets?" I asked to no one in particular.  
  
"I never thought I'd have to hear someone asking that question," Kelli sighed.   
  
At that second, there came a high pitched squealing from behind her. Her form went rigid and she knew only too well who the person speeding this way to tackle her was.   
  
"OH GREAT DANCING FATES, COULD IT BE?! A FOREST FAIR-" was all that Tingle got out.  
  
Kelli whipped around, pulled back her wooden arm and then threw it forward with a great SMASH and a cry of "MACE!" She shattered the bottle of Dr. Deku's Leaf Restoring Formula right in the scary little man's face.   
  
He dropped to the ground unconscious, and the three of us stood there for a moment while Kelli regained her breath.   
  
"Problem taken care of," she said proudly.   
  
"I suppose we should be grateful for that," I admitted.   
  
"And by the way, Link will be heading for the mountains next," Kelli said casually.   
  
"Wait, WHAT?" Erik stammered, not as casually. "And what makes you say that?"   
  
"Remember six days ago wh-... er... two days from now, when Skullkid goes up on the roof of the Clock Tower with that bitch Tatl's brother?" she asked, sounding very proud of herself.   
  
"... yeah?" Erik and I both queried.   
  
"He said, 'Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. The four who are there, bring them here.'"   
  
The conversation had come back to me. "Oh YEAAAAH!" I whispered. "Yeah, that's right! Good thinking, Kelli!"   
  
"The four who?" asked Erik.  
  
"I dunno," I shrugged. "But we should head to the mountains as quickly as possible. That way we'll head that little cretin off and get him to change us back in time for us to get out of here before the Carnival. AND the Big Kablooie."   
  
"But where ARE the mountains?" asked Kelli. "Remember, we don't have a map of anywhere but Clock Town anymore!"  
  
"But didn't Erik grab his from his pocket when he was a human?" I asked.  
  
"Nah, it went back when time reset. And the mountains are that way," Erik said casually, pointing to the north and out of the town entrance just to our right.   
  
Kelli and I stared at him. "How did you know that?" I asked.   
  
"The sign says so," he said as though it were obvious.   
  
"Erik, that sign is in Goronese!" Kelli said nervously. "How come you can read it?"   
  
"He's a Goron, dummy!" I told her.   
  
"Don't call me a dummy! That shouldn't have any affect on whether or not he can read!" Kelli argued, hopping up and down. "What if it's the curse coming back?!"  
  
"You're so paranoid! I can't believe how sensitive you're being!"  
  
"IF YOU EVEN TRY TO-"  
  
"Guys, I've ALWAYS known how to read Goronese," Erik interrupted calmly.   
  
We both glanced at him.  
  
"Half the books in the library are written in Goronese. I've known how to read it since I was a kid," he reminded us.   
  
There was a pause.   
  
"Oh," Kelli and I said quietly.   
  
"Sorry, David..." she murmured.  
  
"Yeah, me too... we really shouldn't fight."   
  
It was the frustration of yet another miss that had caused us to lose our temper. We hugged, out of friendship. She made me feel itchy. My scales slimed her outfit.   
  
"Er... hey?" Erik mumbled.  
  
"What? We're busy," Kelli told him.   
  
"Hate to break up the loving moment, but Link's headed out that way," Erik said calmly, pointing at the northern exit that led towards the mountain road.  
  
And there he was, the little brat who was the cause of all of this. He looked like up until he'd heard Erik say that, he'd been trying to tiptoe very casually out of town.   
  
The three of us turned to him and gave him morbid smiles.   
  
He gave us a tiny, "Meep." And then he tried to run.   
  
"FORMATION C28, EXECUTE!" I screamed at the top of my gills.   
  
With perfect military discipline, Kelli leaped up and into Erik's arms. He did a single spin and pulled her back behind him, chucking her with all his might at the escaping kid.   
  
She collided with Link's head seconds later, sending them both flat on their backs on the ground in front of the doorway.   
  
Link didn't even have time to wonder what had hit him before I was on top of him, squeezing him by the throat with my slippery scales. Kelli clung to his legs and Erik stood over both of us like some kind of a security guard, just waiting for him to try anything.   
  
"ULP!" Link choked in a distorted voice as I strangled him. "HEY GUYS, IT'S B-BEEN A WHILE!"  
  
"Tomorrow, actually," I said coolly, giving him a dark smile.   
  
"Linky, Linky, Linky..." Kelli clucked, shaking her head. "You just keep making this harder and harder for yourself, now don't you?"   
  
He didn't answer, but he looked terrified.   
  
"Well, what's your excuse for ditching us THIS time?" Erik threatened.   
  
"AAAAIRRR!"   
  
"David, he can't breathe!" Kelli shouted.   
  
"Oh, sorry," I said quickly, releasing him.   
  
I held him by the collar and let him breathe for a moment before he turned back to his normal color and finally said, "If you three would stop following me like stalkers, maybe I'd be more willing to do you the favor!"   
  
"FAVOR?! FAVOR!?" I roared. "YOU CALL CHANGING US BACK FROM THE CURSE THAT YOU GOT US INTO A FAVOR?! I OUGHTA SQUEEZE YOU UNTIL YOU POP, YOU SWOLLEN LITTLE ZIT!"   
  
"Whoa, David, lay off," Erik said, tapping me on the shoulder.   
  
"I-I didn't curse you!"  
  
"IF YOU'D TURNED IN YOUR LIBRARY BOOK ON TIME WE WOULDN'T EVEN BE LOOKING FOR YOU!"   
  
"David, calm down!" Kelli yelled. "People are starting to stare at us."   
  
"I AM CALM!" I screamed ironically.  
  
Link wet his pants. "All right, all right, I'm sorry!" he let out in terror. "C-come on... L-l-let me go and I'll play that song..."   
  
"Really?" Erik asked.   
  
"Yes, really!"  
  
"The RIGHT song? The Song of Healing?!" Kelli added in.   
  
"Good thinking, Kel," Erik said, patting her on the head.   
  
"Yes, the RIGHT song! The Song of Healing!" Link swore. "I promise, I'll play it for you! Just please, don't hurt me!"   
  
"All right... now, be a good little boy," I began to say, as I began to release him.   
  
I didn't get any further than that.   
  
  
  
All of a sudden, a splitting pain went screaming through my skull, shattering my voice into a loud yelp of surprise.   
  
I dropped Link and plummeted forward, face planting just to his side. I clutched the top of my head with two hands and screamed as the same pain hit my back and shoulders.   
  
"FIENDS!" an unfamiliar voice screamed.   
  
The next thing I heard was Erik's deep Goron grunt as he went flying and landed not far from me, wincing and clutching at his chest. A shrill, mutated howl followed and Kelli slammed against the walls of the town and then back into the grass.   
  
"What the HELL-" I began as I sat up, only to be knocked down again.   
  
"FIENDS! MONSTERS! PICKING ON A LITTLE BOY!" our assailant cried. It was one of the Termanian Clock Town guards, waving his spear over his head like he had just used it to beat three cursed Hylians into submission.   
  
"YES, YOU TERRIBLE, WRETCHED CREATURES!" a high-pitched voice like the sound of a ringing bell added in.   
  
"Tatl, what are you DOING?!" Link gasped out, staring around at the three of us.   
  
"Link, you poor boy! Are you all right?!" Tatl cried out in a fairly obvious acting voice. She fluttered over to him and pretended to examine him with the utmost concern.   
  
"WHY YOU LITTLE...!" I heard Kelli shriek as she launched herself at Tatl. The guard knocked her away with his spear as easily as though she had been a baseball.   
  
"HEATHENS! HOW DARE YOU BREAK TERMANIAN CLOCK TOWN SECTOR CODE #2342, BEATING AN INNOCENT CHILD TO THE POINT OF PANTS URNIATION WITHIN CITY LIMITS!?" the guard cried. "OUT! OUT OF THIS CITY, YOU MONSTERS!"   
  
So THAT'S what had happened! When we caught Link on his way out, Tatl had raced to the guard to tell on us!   
  
"Now wait a minute, sir!" Erik had begun to argue, but it was too late. Two more guards had arrived and picked him up by the shoulders, throwing him out of the North Gate.   
  
"He's lying, we weren't!" I yelled, only to suffer the same fate.   
  
When I opened my eyes again after the thump, I was in Termina Field, nearly on top of Erik, who looked dazed.   
  
Three seconds later, our third party member came flying out of the North Gate, landing in a neat pile on top of we other two.   
  
"AND DON'T EVER COME BACK, YOU PEDOPHILES!" the three guards screamed.   
  
"Ugh... David, you okay?" Erik asked a moment later.   
  
"ARGH! THAT LITTLE MONSTER!" I burst out. "How DARE he get US kicked out of the town because he's too selfish to do us a favor?!"   
  
"Favor?" Kelli questioned from her face-down position on my shoulder, remembering my earlier rant.   
  
"So, you're all right?" Erik repeated to me.   
  
"As good as I could possibly be right now."   
  
"Then could you please get off of me?" he snapped.   
  
I rolled off of him, sending Kelli into a heap next to me.   
  
"This can't get any worse," she moaned. "We're lost, we have no money, we have no map, we have no idea if the curse is going to come back or not, we've been kicked out of Clock Town... and on top of that, we only have two more days until the moon crashes and kills us all!"   
  
"At least you've got your hair back," Erik pointed out cheerily.   
  
"So WHAT?! That won't help us now!" she shot back. "I don't see how this could possibly get any worse!"   
  
A noise that only a creature made out of Jello could make sounded from just to the side of our heads.   
  
"... I was wrong."   
  
"SHLURRRRP!"   
  
"AAAAAAIEEEEEE!"   
  
  
  
Several hours later, evicted from Clock Town and with no other real clues as to where we could get started walking, the three of us were trudging on endlessly towards the towering silver and blue mountain ranges of Snowhead to the north.   
  
We had dropped down into a deep valley just before the foothills of the mountains, where great rock formations that looked like mushrooms towered over our heads and ankle-deep, powdery snow had dusted itself.   
  
"So, what's the plan, o great and fearless leader?" sighed Kelli.   
  
"I figure we'll head into the mountains and wait... somewhere where we'll know we'll see Link when he finally comes," I explained.   
  
"What if he doesn't come?" asked Erik.   
  
"We... die as the moon explodes the earth into a big giant fireball," I explained again.   
  
"Were you trying to be reassuring again?" he asked.   
  
"Yeah... I guess. Why?"  
  
"Because you did a very, VERY bad job!" both he and Kelli yelled.   
  
"Well... at least there'll be Gorons up there," I sighed.   
  
"That's a good thing?" asked Erik glumly.   
  
"Yes. Maybe they can help us. And maybe they'll let us stay in their city if you're one of them," I offered.   
  
"Maybe they'll throw me out for being an outsider," Erik snapped back.   
  
"They wouldn't do that. Gorons are big on brotherhood. Remember when Big Brother Darunia came down to read at the library?" Kelli giggled.   
  
"He ate three books," Erik said, his face dark like he could remember it. "Then he chewed on six more, spit them out and put them back in the wrong place on the shelf."   
  
"Well, he's a nice guy, at least. Let's hope the Goron leader in Termina is the same," I said hopefully.   
  
We were walking as quickly as we could for a few reasons. We wanted to hurry and get to Snowhead before Link showed up. We wanted to get somewhere with civilization before it got dark and all of the monsters came out.   
  
And to top it all off, I was getting very, very cold.   
  
The boots leftover from my human body seemed to do their job... at least, a little bit. The fact that my skin was naturally wet and that my body was skinny and streamlined didn't do well to keep me warm as the temperature steadily dropped the further we went into the mountains.   
  
By the time we reached the top of a small pass that lead up into the foothills, I was shivering.   
  
To our extreme pleasure (that was sarcasm), it was blocked off by thick chunks of ice and the path over the top was sealed by heavy-looking icicles.   
  
"David, you okay?" asked Kelli with concern when she saw me sneezing.   
  
"F-fine," I murmured.   
  
"You don't look so good. You're not as shiny as you were in town and on the field," Erik pointed out.   
  
"I'm just cold, that's all," I assured them.   
  
"It is? Funny, I can't tell," Erik shrugged.   
  
"You're a Goron, you're supposed to be temperature resistant!" I shot back.   
  
"I can't feel it either," shrugged Kelli.   
  
"I don't think scrubs can feel temperature in their bodies, since they're made out of wood," Erik explained, studying our ice block predicament and scratching his chin. "But your leaves are shriveling up, Kelli."   
  
She held up a handful of her leafy hair. Sure enough, it was turning from bright green to a dead, autumnal sort of yellowish orange. "Great... and I threw away that bottle of Dr. Deku's."   
  
"L-let's just hurry up and get up there, can we?" I sneezed again. "I could use a nice warm fire."   
  
"What are we going to do about all this ice?" asked Kelli, waving her hands around. "I don't suppose one of you has an axe or a blowtorch?"   
  
"F-FORMATION C28! EXECUTE!" I called out just before I sneezed again.   
  
Without so much as a word, Erik scooped her up and threw her, flailing and screaming, at the big icicle up above the chunks. It and she went plummeting down, shattering the large ice pieces into fragments and clearing our path.  
  
Kelli was not happy.   
  
"Remind me again..." she said in a dangerous voice as she pulled herself out of a her-shaped snowdrift, "When did we think of these formations?"   
  
"Back in Kakariko, when we were human," Erik reminded her.   
  
"Well, was there ALWAYS going to be a formation where Erik THREW me at something?"   
  
"Yeah. David and I made it up," Erik smiled wickedly.   
  
The path up into the first little area (which a nearby sign called "Mountain Village" was rocky and filled with snow-covered trees. It looked like a nice old-fashioned Christmas card... when you discounted the three of us walking along, making a lot of noise.   
  
The sun was beginning to sink in the sky, and we knew that it would be dark pretty soon. It just kept getting colder and colder.   
  
"Hang in there, David!" Kelli cheered me on, pushing on my legs to keep me walking. "We're almost there! Someone will let us stay with them until it gets warm again in the morning!"   
  
"I don't think he's gonna make it that long!" Erik warned, keeping one arm over my shoulder.   
  
"What makes you say that?" Kelli gasped in terror.   
  
"He hasn't issued an order to either of us in almost an hour!" Erik said, his voice panicked.   
  
"Oh great Nayru... David! David! Speak to me, David!" Kelli cried.   
  
I didn't want to speak. I didn't feel like I could open my mouth. I felt like I had been dumped, soaking wet, out of a nice warm bath and into a freezing cold lake. The cold was cutting into my fish-like body over every inch of me, and my tunic and boots were no help anymore as my body had made them damp as well. I was walking along with the others, shivering until I thought my eyes would fall out, taking small steps for fear that my feet would snap off.   
  
"SO... C-COLD..." I mumbled between clenched fangs.   
  
"Jeez, he's turning into a fish stick!" Erik cursed, shaking his arm off of my shoulder. He could feel how cold I was.   
  
"Erik, we have to stop!" Kelli burst out. "We shouldn't have come this far!"   
  
"We can't stop! It's starting to snow now, and it'll only get colder the darker it gets! He'll freeze to death if we stop now!" Erik scolded her.   
  
"C-CAN'T... M-MOVE..." I mumbled again.   
  
"You'd better keep moving!" Erik warned. "Keep your blood flowing!"  
  
"Look, there's the village up ahead!" Kelli cried, hopping up and down excitedly.   
  
Some village. There was only one house that we could see, and the rest of the village consisted of high cliffs and paths that led to other areas of the Snowhead Mountains. A frozen river with a wooden bridge over it flowed across the place, and a large road sign was pointing the way to various landmarks in the center.   
  
"There's only one house here!" Erik sighed. "I really hope they're home!"   
  
He took a few steps ahead before stopping, realizing that neither Kelli nor I were following him. "Come on, hurry up!"  
  
"He won't move!" Kelli squeaked.   
  
I swear, it had felt like my limbs had frozen. I couldn't take another step.   
  
"Oh DIN!" Erik cursed, racing back and staring at me like he didn't know what to do.   
  
"SHRY!" I let out from between my teeth.   
  
Kelli was hopping around like a mad woman out of the corner of my eye. "Whadda we do, Erik?! Whadda we do?!"   
  
Erik made a brave face, reached down, and plucked me out of my place in the snow, throwing me over his shoulder like a big frozen log. I could now see all the way down the pass the way we came, but I was still too cold to move and I could feel my eyelids growing heavy and sleepy.   
  
"Hurry, go up and knock on the door!" Erik told Kelli.   
  
Luckily, the lights in the house were on, and smoke was rising up out of the chimney. I heard rustling noises as Kelli hopped up the steps, jumped up, and beat on the door as hard as she could with both hands.   
  
"Hang on pal, we're almost there," Erik told me from behind me.   
  
"TRN M RND S CN S DR!" I muttered back.   
  
"What?"   
  
"TRN... ME... ROUND... S... CAN... SEE... DR!" I enunciated between frozen lips.   
  
"Oh."   
  
He set me down the way one would a statue, and turned me so I could see that we were standing in front of the steps of the house. I was watching just in time to see the door open and a bright lamplight throw its shadow across the darkness of dusk that had settled in the village around us.   
  
A skinny man with black hair and smiling eyes opened the door, glanced around, scowled, and prepared to shut the door. "Stupid Gorons and their stupid ding-dong doorbell ditch..."   
  
"We're down here!" Kelli yelled.   
  
The man turned and glanced down. He blinked a few times at the strange party at his door. "What the... hey, what the heck are a Deku and a Zora doing all the way up here?! 'R you guys nuts?!"   
  
"I'm sorry to bother you sir," Erik cut in diplomatically, "But we need help! We're lost and we need somewhere to stay for the night!"   
  
The man blinked again. "Goron man, this is a blacksmith shop, not an inn."   
  
"Please! It's an emergency!" Kelli squealed pleadingly. "Our friend's really cold! We need somewhere where he can get warm!"   
  
The man glanced from Kelli to Erik back to me. I tried my best to give him a little wave with the few fingers I had that would still move. I managed to make a groaning "PLS SR T MNS LT T S!" sound.   
  
The man finally let out a little sigh and pushed the door open. "Get 'im inside. Hurry up, before you let all the warm air out!"  
  
The man's shop- a blacksmith shop, like he had said, was pretty small, with most of the room inside taken up by two huge stoves, one of which was frozen over. The other one was fairly small and glowing brightly. A large, plush couch was set behind the counter, and a little dog bed on the floor.   
  
To my great disappointment, it wasn't too terribly much warmer inside the house than it was outside.   
  
"I am Zabora, the great blacksmith of Snowhead," the man who'd let us in said, bowing suavely.   
  
"Erik, Kelli's the Deku and David is the Popsicle," Erik explained, nodding his head.   
  
"And that's Gabora," Zabora added, motioning vaguely to the corner.   
  
"Where?" asked Kelli.   
  
It was then that a tremendous giant of a man in an iron mask, chained to the wall, holding a huge hammer let out a horrible "GGGRRRRRNNN!" and rattled his chains.   
  
Kelli and Erik let out terrified shrieks and leapt away, as I would have done if Erik hadn't been holding me.   
  
"GRRRRRNNNN!" Gabora grunted again, waving his hammer threateningly.   
  
"WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT THING!?" Kelli screamed.  
  
"Don't be rude, Gabora!" Zabora cried angrily, chucking a small paperweight at the giant. It bounced off of his metal helmet, and the giant let out a whiny little noise and flopped down to the floor to pout. "Don't be afraid of him. He's just my assistant."   
  
Gabora glanced up, looking hurt. I think. It was hard to tell through the mask. He crumpled up into a little ball and rocked back and forth, sucking his thumb.   
  
Zabora clapped his hands and motioned to another couch on our side of the counter. "Now then! Set your friend down there, and we'll get him nice and warmed up."   
  
"Beg your pardon, Mr. Zabora," Kelli cut in.   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"Wouldn't it make more sense if you turned on the big stove to heat the house?" she murmured.   
  
"Can't. It's frozen shut!" Zabora pointed out, kicking the thing angrily with one foot and throwing up his hand.   
  
"How disgustingly ironic," she sighed.   
  
"I know, it is, ain't it? I've never been out of business during the winter before!" Zabora snapped, glaring at the stove like it had hurt him personally. "But great GIANTS, it's COLD this winter... It hasn't been this cold for a long time! What with all the blizzards blowing in from the Snowhead Temple..."   
  
"Snowhead Temple?" Erik mumbled.   
  
"Yeah, it's some big Goron thingy up the pass a little ways," Zabora said, waving an impatient hand. "Ever since the moon started getting bigger, it's been below freezing every day! It seems like winter will never come! Even the Gorons are getting upset about it, and they're so thick they can hardly feel the cold! Know what I mean, kid?" he glanced at Erik.   
  
"Yeah... even I was starting to get cold..." Erik sighed.   
  
"Beg your pardon again, Mr. Zabora," Kelli cut in again.   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"How are we going to warm up David if your stove is broken?" she asked.   
  
I thought it was a very good question. Erik had propped me up against the couch. It felt a little warmer, but my limbs were still stiff and beginning to get sore.   
  
Zabora paused for a moment. "Good question."   
  
I let out a deep groan that everybody could hear.   
  
"Now, now, don't get upset!" Zabora said. "There's loads of hot springs hidden in caves around here. You know where one is, right?"  
  
"We're from out of town," Erik explained.   
  
"Ah... well anyway, hot springs. The Gorons know where they all are. If you could find one of them and grab some hot water, I could make him a little bath... But honestly, I dunno what you were thinking taking him up here in the first place."   
  
"Hot springs... Gorons..." Erik murmured, nodding his head.   
  
"Only..."   
  
"Only what?" Kelli asked.   
  
Zabora gave a little shrug. "I haven't seen too many Gorons around lately. Like I said, this cold snap is affecting even them. All the ones I have seen when I go out to cut firewood..."   
  
"What about them?" Erik interrupted.  
  
"They're frozen solid," Zabora admitted, shrugging a bit.   
  
Erik and Kelli both gulped.   
  
"The rest of them are staying in their village... they're afraid the same thing'll happen to them," he explained. "But if you could find a live one around, I'm sure they'd tell you where the springs are."   
  
There was a tense moment of silence, interrupted only by Gabora giving a deep snort from over in the corner, where he was upset.   
  
"David's too cold to go on, Erik," Kelli said quietly.   
  
"But if we can't go on, we'll never catch up with Link... and we're doomed," Erik added, with a grim expression.   
  
Another tense moment of silence.   
  
"Wow... this is awkward!" Zabora commented.   
  
Erik's wide Goron face was twisted in thought. Finally, he spoke.   
  
"I'll go."   
  
"Huh?" Kelli asked.   
  
"I'll go out and find a Goron and ask them about the hot spring," Erik said again, nodding bravely.   
  
"Erik are you nuts?! What if you freeze out there too?!" Kelli gasped. "We have to stay together!"   
  
"What's the alternative? YOU go? Your leaves are already falling off, and if you go out there you'll freeze even quicker," Erik said logically.   
  
"DON'T LEAVE ME WITH THAT THING!" Kelli hissed, motioning at Gabora.   
  
"Relax, Kel. If he attacks you, just have David protect you."  
  
"David's frozen!"  
  
"Then use him as a weapon."  
  
I grumbled fiercely.   
  
"AHEM. He can hear you," Zabora warned.   
  
"What's he gonna do, make me cold?" Kelli scoffed.   
  
"Not him. Gabora," Zabora said calmly.   
  
Kelli let out a little shriek and stepped away from where Gabora was standing up, not looking happy.   
  
"SORRY, BIG GUY!" she giggled nervously.   
  
"I guess I'm going out then," Erik told Zabora.   
  
"Erik, no. Can't we just wait until morning?" Kelli asked nervously, now ignoring the big palooka in the corner.   
  
"We don't have time to wait! And if David doesn't warm up, he could be in serious trouble!" Erik muttered darkly. "I'll go to the hot spring and get some hot water, then make it back here."   
  
"But what if something happens to you?" Kelli whispered anxiously.   
  
"Then... Get you and David back down to the flatlands," he said quietly. "Forget about me. Find Link and go back to Hyrule."  
  
"Erik, no way!" Kelli interjected. "We can't take the chance of any of us not coming back!"   
  
"We don't have a choice... I have to go. David agrees with me, don't you, David?" Erik said, glancing over his shoulder at me.   
  
I couldn't nod, but I recognized the look in his eyes. It was one that he had when he was determined and nothing could stop him. It was the same look he'd given me countless time since we were kids together, anytime I'd tried to assign him to a role in a game that he didn't like.   
  
My best friend was risking his life to make sure I'd be okay.   
  
"HMMH," I murmured.   
  
Erik let out a deep sigh. "Well, that settles it... I'm going."   
  
"Hey, you be careful now, y'hear?" Zabora said, shaking a finger at him. "There's a lot of open water pits around here still, and if you don't keep moving you'll sink into the snow and freeze!"   
  
"Got ya," Erik nodded officially, giving a salute.   
  
"Erik... you be careful!" Kelli cried, throwing herself around his leg in an embrace.   
  
"I will be."  
  
Silence.  
  
"Kelli, let go."   
  
"Don't get hurt!" she ordered.   
  
"I won't! Just let go!"  
  
Reluctantly, she released him.   
  
He trudged towards the door, his eyebrows sunken into a determined glare over his big, black eyes. He gave me a look before he put his hand on the doorknob.   
  
"David," he said quietly.   
  
"HMMHHHMMMH!" I murmured.   
  
With that, the library's page-turned-Goron opened the door, took a step outside, slammed the door shut and was gone.   
  
Kelli ran to the window and watched him walk away. I would have done the same, if I could move. Big sappy tears were in her orange eyes, and she turned to me, saying with a nervous tone in her voice, "I hope he'll be all right..."   
  
I moved my eyes up and down to nod.   
  
There was a tense silence.  
  
"So!" Zabora said cheerily, clapping his hands after he had thrown another huge log on the stove that was gradually warming me up. "Who's up for a game of poker?"   
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
More trouble for our three heroes... Kicked out of Clock Town, lost in the mountains, and now, it's up to Erik to race against three separately ticking clocks! Link is on his way north, David is on his way to the big fish tank in the sky (well... maybe), and the moon is on its way to turn Termina into shrapnel, and everything is on his shoulders now! Next time- the Snowhead Temple! 


End file.
